Income inequality hurts everyone

You've gotta watched this TED Talk by Richard Wilkinson, author of "The Spirit Level". It's not that he's a great speaker: he's just got an incredibly important point to make about how income inequality within a state causes health and social problems for everyone... and he has the data to prove it.



He doesn't shy away from the fact that Singapore is THE most unequal nation in terms of income in the world:


But unfortunately he doesn't have a lot of data to graph us. We definitely don't do well on the percentage of population incarcerated, though.



I've gotta buy this book.

October 2011 texts!

Did I really read and watch so little in October? Singapore Writers Festival can't be that good for me after all...

*POETRY*
Leonard Ng’s “This Mortal World”

*FICTION*
Heidi Munan’s =“Tales from the Iban” and +“Tales from the Bidayuh”
+“My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me”, ed. Kate Bernheimer
Nuruddin Farah’s “Maps”
+Maaza Mengiste’s “Beneath the Lion’s Gaze”

*MIXED GENRE*
=“CERIPH 2”
+“The Short Stories and Radio Plays of S. Rajaratnam”, ed. Irene Ng

*PERFORMANCES*
=“Laskar Pelangi”
+Hofesh Schechter Dance Company’s “Political Mother”
JECKOSdance’s “We Came From the East”
+Pangdemonium Productions’ “Dealer’s Choice”

*EXHIBITIONS*
=Grapheme's "Zine Mosh"

+Amanda Heng’s “Speak to Me, Walk With Me”