Hello.
Many fans were left disappointed this week when they couldn’t secure seats for Taylor Swift’s shows in March 2024, as pre-sale tickets sold out in three hours on Wednesday. Swifties have been queuing at SingPost outlets across Singapore more than 24 hours before general ticket sales open at noon today, but most are likely to go away heartbroken and possibly looking for resale tickets.
Cue the villains of the story: Scalpers selling the tickets for up to 10 times their original price. There are ways to improve ticketing so fans aren’t at the mercy of scalpers, says NUS Business School’s Joe Escobedo.
Meanwhile, large supermarkets have started charging shoppers at least S$0.05 (US$0.04) for every plastic bag they take. But plastic use in supermarkets extends far beyond disposable carrier bags at checkout counters. There isn’t a magic bullet that eradicates plastic in supermarkets, but there are few easy, plastic-free alternatives for storing and transporting perishable food, says cookbook author Pamelia Chia.
In parliament this week, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam and Foreign Affairs Minister Vivian Balakrishnan went into detail about their reasons for renting two black-and-white colonial bungalows on Ridout Road.
Investigations have found no wrongdoing by the ministers. But the crux of the issue over the rental of the state properties was not about alleged corruption; the six-hour parliament debate showed public concerns lie also in perceived conflicts of interest and inequality, says NTU political analyst Felix Tan.
We hope you enjoy our selection of commentaries this week.
Alison Jenner
Senior Editor, Commentary