EDITOR’S NOTE
I have been careful during this COVID-19 period to keep it out of my editor’s letter. It was everywhere else, so I thought you might need a break from it. But, now that there’s a slight turn for the better, I don’t want to gloss over it either.
There’s obviously the impact on those of us who aren’t able to see children and parents, or go to weddings and funerals; others have lost their jobs. Even greater, though, is the impact on the thousands who aren’t able to feed their families. Many of them are literally across the water from us, in places where a month of food for a family costs around $50 – yet they don’t even have that little amount coming in as tourism has dried up. There are a lot of people doing some great work in helping to feed people in Singapore and further afield. This, I feel, is the basic need we should be focusing on. And I wanted to especially thank those who are doing their bit – you know who you are. Many other things will have changed over this period, so we thought it was a good time to do a short Reader Survey! We’re keen to see if rentals have gone up, for instance, and how the demographics of our readers might have changed; it’ll help us to work out what content we should introduce to match these changes. We know a lot of Singaporean expats have returned from overseas postings, for one thing, and we want to make sure we help you settle back in! So, please go online to expatliving.sg/expat-living-reader-survey-2021 or turn to page 18 for entry details. It’s only a short survey and, as always, you’ll get a chance to win great prizes! And let’s all start wishing and hoping for further light at the end of that tunnel.