In April last year, Unyakarn Booprasert, a Thai cleaner, tried to commit suicide in front of the Ministry of Finance’s building with rat poison as a “protest”, as what she was going through “happened to many people.”“I completely ran out of money. I called my friends and relatives. Everyone had no money,” Booprasert explained.

Other than preying on humans, the deadly COVID-19 virus has severely affected livelihoods, local businesses and the economy in general. Major industries such as tourism and hospitality have been hit hard by the pandemic.

In April last year, Unyakarn Booprasert, a Thai cleaner, tried to commit suicide in front of the Ministry of Finance’s building with rat poison as a “protest”, as what she was going through “happened to many people.”“I completely ran out of money. I called my friends and relatives. Everyone had no money,” Booprasert explained.

Over the past year, rich-country governments and central banks have provided unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus to help mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the wake of the imposition of another movement control order (MCO 2.0) in Malaysia, manufacturing players, mid-tier companies (MTCs) and small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been galvanised to rally under Industries Unite as a broad coalition representing the interests of industries and businesses. In what’s a parallel “movement” on the public health front – where experts and medical professionals have been calling for a recalibration and fine-tuning of the COVID-19 cont

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the world was already unequal. Hence activists and organisations fighting and marching for gender equality, equality of opportunity and education, among others. However, COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated global economic inequality – geographically and socially. The health crisis has had a devastating impact on poverty levels and inequality.

With the reimposition of the movement control order (MCO 2.0) in Malaysia which impacts the economy – though less severe compared to MCO 1.0 – we may be witnessing the beginning of a housing loans crisis in the making. This near-apocalyptic scenario may not sound palatable for banking stocks and could well be just hypothetical.

Homelessness is typically defined as purely the absence of shelter or a place to sleep.

The world is not yet sufficiently alarmed by how much the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the global economy. We track the daily numbers of infections and casualties. But we are oblivious to the job losses and lives upended, especially in the developing world, where the pandemic has barely elicited a public-health response.The pandemic’s impact on major economies has so far been four times worse than that of the 2008 global financial crisis.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has affected workers from almost all walks of life – some are hit harder than others. For domestic workers, waste pickers and street vendors among others who earn a wage on a day-to-day basis, 2020 has been anything but difficult as they struggle to make ends meet.