EPF Loan: More Joy or More Suffering?

Starting from April 7, 2023, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) members who fulfill certain conditions were allowed to apply for a loan of up to RM5,0000 from banks, with lower interest rates compared to other loan schemes. It seems the government has given in to the pressure from various groups, including the opposition, to open another round of EPF special withdrawal to help members in dire need of money. As helpful as it sounds, this loan scheme would lead to more long-term problems while leaving the urgent short-term ones unresolved.

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A Cautionary Tale: The Time I Got Scammed

I used to think that scams were easy to avoid as long as one was vigilant. Whether it be in person or online, signs of a scam are obvious when you spot an abnormality that arises outside of a normal circumstance. Moreover, in the digital age, where we get notified of all sorts of scams from news outlets and stories, it seems inevitable that one feels confident in identifying a scam if and when they come across one. I was that way, having traversed most of London on my own while avoiding the typical tourist scams that are part and parcel of big cities. However, after one particular encounter, I had to realign my viewpoint on scams.

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Climate Justice: Policies and Promises

Climate change has been a crisis brewing ever since the Second Industrial Revolution. From carbon emissions to food insecurity and rising sea levels, climate outbursts are slowly becoming a constant occurrence with more pressing long-term concerns looming in the future. After decades of awareness campaigns and education, the public generally understands that the solution to reversing climate change involves everyone – individuals, corporations, and every governing body there is in the world – and requires faster and larger preventive measures and remediation. Braced with this knowledge, ordinary people suffer in silence as their trust in climate action by authoritative bodies and belief in community efforts dwindle.

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‘I don’t belong here’: Why Radiohead was right about imposter syndrome

“I’m a creep / I’m a weirdo / what the hell am I doing here / I don’t belong here” are not only words from Radiohead’s 1993 hit song Creep but also very prevalent thoughts associated with imposter syndrome. Simply put, imposter syndrome involves feelings of self-doubt and incompetence, as well as feeling like a fraud for reasons related to low self-esteem or high expectations which may be set from childhood. In other words, it is the inability to internalise one’s own achievements, giving us a delusional, distorted lens of our accomplishments and work ethic.

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