Social Division

Aired a couple of thousand years ago, these words may well be jarring to modern ears unaccustomed to old aphorisms: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the Sun.”

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof

Aviation and turbulence are inextricably linked, and it is the rare traveller who has not experienced at least once that distinct stomach-churning sensation and overpowering jolt at 35,000 feet. Usually, the bumpiest ride is experienced by economy-class passengers at the rear of an aircraft, clearly the least desirable seat assignment for anyone susceptible to flight sickness.

Trust Me

Have you ever interacted with people who would feel embarrassed to admit that they watch television? I wonder what they would make of my unabashed disclosure of having binge-watched the critically-acclaimed television series Breaking Bad thrice! Chemistry was my favourite subject in school, which might partly explain my admiration for Bryan Cranston in the role of a cancer-stricken Chemistry teacher turned drug mastermind, nicknamed Heisenberg. Supported by his sidekick, former student Jesse Pinkman, and a superb cast of actors, Walter White discovered that he had the cold-eyed deftness for “cooking” methamphetamine (crystal meth), an illegal recreational drug.

Squeezed

The middle class is an ambiguous social construct inhabited by people best described as possessing “significant human capital.” Their accrued potential places them a cut above the rank-and-file, but not in the same league as the privileged class. Typically, the middle class encompasses managers, salaried bureaucrats, small business-owners, and professionals who occupy the engine room of a modern economy. Decades-long access to skills training and knowledge resources led to unprecedented value-addition, wealth-creation, and improvements in living standards. Essentially, knowledge workers represent an indispensable backbone of civilised societies, with the tacit promise of upward mobility and a much-prized social status.