ARTICLE | A Critique of Mandatory HIV Testing for Residency Renewal

For many expatriates, myself included, renewing a resident visa comes with a familiar routine: undergoing a mandatory medical test. On the surface, this requirement appears to be just another bureaucratic step in maintaining legal status. Yet, when revealed, the test is often focused almost exclusively on HIV. This focus raises serious ethical, human rights, and public health questions.

THE QUIET CORNER | Existing But Not Living

The past few days, I’ve noticed something unsettling about myself. It feels like I’ve degenerated. Not in the dramatic, world-ending kind of way, but in the quiet, almost invisible sense where you suddenly realize that the spark you once carried has dimmed into something you can barely feel anymore. I used to look forward to people. Conversations. Even the things I once loved doing. Now, when I come home after a long day, all I want to do is collapse into bed. No music, no books, no hobbies, no laughter — just the dead weight of exhaustion pressing me into my mattress. Is this depression? Or is it some kind of soul crush — that strange emptiness where you’re not exactly broken, but you’re not alive either. Days roll into each other, and the future doesn’t even glimmer. It just looks… blank.