A Near Return To The Familiar? Singapore Responds to Covid

By Abam Mambo, Regional Legal Director (Asia) - Microsoft
 
I was walking across the landing early one July morning last year when I saw Lily at the foot of the curved staircase. Clad in shorts and a t-shirt, her back was flat against the polished wood floors. Knees bent, she moved her feet from heel to tiptoe in a slow, rhythmic cadence as if replicating the Moonwalk. Her hands were raised mid-air as she wove something invisible with her fingers, and her face was awash in sunlight streaming from the tall windows.
It was only when she opened her palms to block out the sun that I heard the whisper of notes from a Tagalog song escaping her lips. She didn’t notice me at the top of the stairs. I tiptoed down a few steps, my feet inexplicably clad in socks despite the signature Singaporean swelter. Then I sat and waited for her to look up or say something.
Since the Prime Minister first announced Singapore’s Circuit Breaker four months earlier in March 2020, people looked for ways to c...