The year 2022 brought much turbulence to people all over the world – war in Ukraine, global inflation, a rout in Big Tech, job losses, severe weather events, general disruption to lives. This was even as many countries learnt to live with the Covid-19 pandemic, re-opening borders, easing health and social distancing restrictions.

As I pondered the events of the year, I wondered how two major disturbances had affected people I had interviewed and featured in these pages. How did the Malaysian chicken export ban affect Lim Wei Keat, the young hawker apprentice who had opened his own chicken rice stall in 2022? And how has the cryptocurrency debacle affected Ng Yi Ming, the founder of a start-up in the blockchain field?