The Adjustment Bureau.

I didn’t want to revive this column

When We started the magazine in 2006, my colleagues and I felt we needed to highlight a local voice, a Singaporean point of view. That, and my surname being ‘Ho’, led to the name of this column. (We had other options, but none printable.) It ran for years until other voices emerged and I wasn’t that angry any more.

However, a recent conversation with a colleague, which ended with him saying, “Well, it just doesn’t fit my current lifestyle”, made the veins on my temples pop, and that rush of irritation has led me back here.

We were heading to a quick lunch. Even on the busiest days, I find that getting out of the office to chow down is a nice break that allows me to clear my mind and check my Flipboard for more end-of-world news (which emerges on an hourly basis these days). As the lift descended, this colleague said he was running out to buy some food to eat at the office. To which another colleague suggested he bring a reusable container or simply eat at the coffee shop to avoid incurring one-use packaging. That led to the above reply.