A Disappearing Sight ...

Some time ago, I read about this place which I did not even realise exist, especially in a country like mine! I was immediately intrigued and have wanted to explore the place since then. Last Saturday, I finally had the opportunity to go to this old-fashioned zinc-roofed canteen. The place is situated right outside an army camp, and en route, one can pass by one of the last few remaining roundabouts left here, called Piccadilly Circus, probably in tribute to the colonial days.

 

I got down from the bus at the entrance and walked in, all the way up. Then I realise the bus actually brings me into the premises, right outside the main entrance of the camp itself, so I did not actually need to walk so far. Now I know. The canteen is situated behind the bus stop. There are several signs to indicate where the canteen is, so one would not get lost.

 The sign just after the bus stop, indicating the direction of the canteen

 

 Carpark right in front of the canteen

 

 The facade of the canteen

 

 Beyond this zinc wall is the coffee stall

 

 The seats outside the canteen

 

 Main entrance of the canteen

 

There are several stalls in the canteen, namely the main coffee stall that sells, well, coffee, tea, drinks and snacks, the Malay stall that sells their own specialty, and the Chinese stall that sells its own mixed rice specialty. I was hungry and the food from the Malay stall looks appetizing, so I bought a plate of fried vermicelli (dried mee siam), with fried egg and chicken wing, as well as a glass of iced milk tea. Delicious, and cheap too!

 



 Interior of the canteen

 

 My plate of fried vermicelli with egg and chicken wing. Cost me only S$1.70 for the whole set, very cheap in today's context.

 

 Giant iced milk tea at double the size and half the price as what is sold outside

 

 Exterior of the canteen

 

 More signs. If one still get lost, then one ought to kick himself.

 

Seeing the structure of the canteen, it kind of reminds me of Malaysia, as one does not see this kind of eatery anywhere anymore. Thank goodness for the numerous heritage blogs that keeps things like this alive and known!

 

All in all, the experience was not bad. Good food at a remarkable price. The only thing I feel uncomfortable about is that, save for the stall owners and workers, I was the only female customer. The rest of the customers are either army guys or construction workers. Hence when I went in and found a place, I could literally feel everyone's eyes one me, making me really uncomfortable!

 

Unfortunately, this last old-fashioned canteen will probably make way soon for the new aerospace hub that is already undergoing construction at the premises. When that happens, modern eateries will replace this, and it will be another sight of the past that will disappear from our shores for good. I only hope the authorities conserve this place, because this is one really good place for education and enjoyment about my country's past.

Unchartered Territory ....

Finally I have uploaded all the photos in my camera which I had taken for the past few months. The next few posts will be on snapshots which I have taken of sceneries and the choral performance I had.

The Cathechists Retreat I went to in June was held at the major seminary, at an area away from population, full of greenery. When I went there, I felt as if I am in another country, because we hardly ever see so many tall trees, grass and greenery around! The grass is even taller than me!

Going there also felt as if time had slowed. It is really unchartered territory for me, to commune with nature and just relax and enjoy! If only this place can be conserved and not give way to urbanisation! We need more places like this and our Earth needs more greenery to survive longer!

Track leading to the Seminary

The grass is even taller than me!

See the train track above?
There is a light rail station, but not in function since there are not that many people staying there.

Reminds me of the scenery in Australia, England or New Zealand, where we drove by rows after rows of trees lining the street

Come Support The Fresh Air Host Fund!

With global warming and the weather and seasons going crazy lately, fresh air is getting to be more and more essential. How many of us are actually breathing in fresh air nowadays? Definitely not in a cosmopolitan island city like this, nor in heavily populated cities.

However, if we go to a laid-back place like Tasmania and some parts of New Zealand where the natural scenery is so wonderful, we can still breathe fresh air. Hence, this summer, some people are playing host to kids, in order to educate them about fresh air and the need for it.

We can help the fresh air fund by either volunteering as hosts for the kids, or contributing in our own ways. Each contribution helps pay for a round-trip bus ticket for the kids. A very generous donor has also agreed to match every donation, so now every donation helps pay for two tickets instead!

It will be great to help the children and save the environment at the same time!

Blackle : A New Energy Saving Portal?

The final day of the battle, and I am so sick of mugging anymore! My brain is officially on strike now that all I want to do is to sleep the whole day and boycott the paper later!

Anyway, in a bid to help conserve energy and save the environment, Google has come up with its new energy-saving portal, complete with a black screen, as apparently, the black screen saves more energy per day as compared to the white screen. I have changed that to my homepage, so hopefully I can also do my part to help conserve more energy!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Save The Environment, Help The Children

The weather is crazy lately. It was raining so heavily last evening that I had to call a cab. Despite the driver stopping right in front of my sheltered office building, I still got sloshed upon. That shows how heavy the rain was!

Today, it started raining again after lunch. We were supposed to go for an Employee Health Screening at the other office building, when the rain came down in torrents, so none of us wanted to brave the rain just for a five-minute body check.

Apparently, this is the wettest and coolest March in seventy-four years! Even the air-conditioning in my second-floor study is going crazy! It turned on all on its own, without the external fan moving, and no matter how many times we tried to turn it off, it simply refused to be turned off. So we had to leave it at that.

Having said that, please help the environment and the children by buying environmentally-friendly bags and donating to the MILK fund from 1st April onwards at selected Jollibean outlets, except CK Tang, Lot 1, HarbourFront Centre, People's Park and Tanjong Pagar MRT Station.

Please do your part for the environment and the children!

A new venture by a local company

Paper Or Plastic?

Finally something is being done to cut down on the usage of plastic bags and encourage recycling and reusing instead. On every first Wednesday of the month, whenever people go shopping or buy anything, they have to either bring along their own bags, or else purchase the retail shopping bags at an extra S$1.00.

This is a good move. However, our locals, being the way they are, have feedbacked that they rather not go shopping on that day just to save the extra S$1.00 and the hassle of bringing out an additional bag. Seems like we are still a long way off from being more actively involved in recycling and reusing.

It is not a big deal actually. Whenever I go shopping, I try not to ask for a bag, especially if I am only purchasing small items which can be fitted snugly into my handbag, like jewellery or cosmetics. If I am shopping for bigger items like clothing, then I will ask the sales assistant to pack all into one bag instead of more, so as to cut down on the usage of bags.

I will also pack all into as few bags as possible whenever I finish my shopping trip. This is partly to prevent the use of so many bags, and also that I can carry all into two hands. Afterall, if one only has two hands, one has to cut down on as many packages as possible so that we can carry with our physical selves all alone.

Everyone else can play a part too. For instance, we can request for paper bags instead of plastic bags. At least paper bags look better, classier and can be reused and recycled, as compared to plastic bags. Somehow, plastic bags look so much tackier and an eyesore to bring out. Besides, plastic bags are non-biodegradable, and disposing of or burning them will cause more harm to the environment.

Thus I really wish everyone can play their part and go shopping with their own bags, or not to use so many bags. Afterall, saving the environment can only wholly work out if everyone put in their effort to cut down on unnecessary wastage.

Planting A Tree

I just got back my second assignment, and it was a disaster! :-( Hopefully the assignment I just submitted could help to pull my grades up a bit, otherwise this module will be a disaster as well! Perhaps it is my fault, for studying subjects like this that have no right or wrong answers. Maybe if I am more mathematically or scientifically inclined, perhaps I can do much better, since there is a higher chance of having a perfect score.

I was involved in the Corporate Tree Planting event organised by my company last week. This was to commemorate Earth Day, and we were supposed to plant about fifty trees (or more) throughout the year. So, a group of us went to one of the nature parks one afternoon and participated in the tree planting.

Firstly, we were briefed on the type of trees native to the island. We were even given handouts indicating the names of the trees and their features. Then, we were instructed on the steps to tree-plating, ie digging, breaking the soil, putting the tree in, covering up. Apparently, the young trees were taken from somewhere else, with the roots covered in soil, and transferred to the spot(s) where they were to be planted.

I proceeded on the digging of the hole first with the hoe provided. The hole had to be about one and a half metres deep. Whilst digging, my hoe hit a lot of old roots and gigantic red ants started crawling out! Eeeeeeeek! The soil was still damp, and I could never imagine the things that got buried inside! Luckily there were no centipedes or earthworms!

After the hole had been dug, we waited for the trees to arrive. They came via a big lorry, the roots wrapped in plastic. I chose a tree and started tearing out the plastic. Since the tree was very heavy, I dragged it across the ground instead of carrying it. But when I came to my hole, the tree was too big to be put inside.

We were then told to break away the soil covering the roots to make the tree fit. So I started breaking away the soil with my hoe. I had to break away a sizeable chunk before my tree could finally be planted into the hole. The next step was to cover up the hole with the soil which we dug out.

So we took the smaller shovel and started covering the hole, making sure that the tree was firmly planted and vertical. After covering the hole, we had to flatten the soil, water the tree and the soil around it for it to grow, then leave out mark on the tree.

First time in my life I planted a tree! Although it was nothing much, but it was a good and enriching experience all the same. But after this attempt, the conclusion is that I can never be a gardener!

Religion Or Tradition?

Come every eve of Lunar New Year, before the big reunion dinner (not really that big actually, just members of my own nuclear family), my family will go to the nearby Buddhist temple where my late grandfather's tablet is placed to pay their respects. Food will be cooked beforehand to be brought to the temple. At the altar, the food will be placed in front of my late grandfather's tablet, then joss sticks will be lit, and each of us will hold three joss sticks in our hands and bend our bodies to pray for my late grandfather's blessings of the year.

I have not been doing this for quite a while, praying with the joss sticks I mean. Ever since I started going to church regularly, I never touched another joss stick, or pray in a Buddhist temple. When I was with my first ex, he was such a staunch Catholic that he forbade me to even step into the temple with my parents, and I got a big scolding for being disrespectful and unfilial (as if one shows filial piety to someone by praying to his tablet?!). However, as the years progressed and I got more involved religion wise, my parents stopped asking me to pray with the joss sticks, but I still had to follow them as a form of respect. Why would it be a form of respect if I just follow them and not pray?

After praying, my parents would then burn the thin sheets of "paper money" into the bin outside. I have never really felt comfortable going to a temple. Firstly, I never understand all the chanting going on. Secondly, the smoke-filled prayer room put me off and made me start gasping for fresh air. Thirdly, I never approve of just burning paper, for whatever reason, as afterall, we need to cut down on paper usage and recycle them so as to save the trees.

Before I get hounded at being insensitive, let me clarify that I am not against the Buddhist faith. I just do not feel comfortable going to a temple. Just like there are some others who do not feel comfortable going into a church, although I must say, church-goers are at least more environmentally-friendly, as they do help in recycling things like hymn books, flyers and the misal books. Still, it is a once-a-year affair and I have to go with my parents.

My parents are not doing this for religion. They do this because it is a tradition. Come Lunar New Year, it seems to be a tradition to pay respects to those who have already gone, and all those burning of the paper is giving the departed new clothes and money to last another year. Do not ask me why this is so as I have no idea, except I know it seems to be some Chinese tradition from long long ago.

But I cannot help but feel guilty for stepping into a temple. Afterall, if I choose to be Christ's follower, am I supposed to even enter another sanctuary for some other faith, even if it is tradition? Since I have embraced Catholicism or Christianity wholeheartedly, am I supposed to do everything required of a good Christian, and forsake all my traditions? Thus, if I follow the Christian way, am I supposed to view Christmas, Good Friday and Easter as most important (which I do), but not Chinese New Year?

Today, the first day of Chinese New Year, is a Sunday. I have to go visiting in the morning. I am supposed to sing for mass in the evening, but as it is, I am not sure if I can make it as my parents may want to bring us visiting around that time. So will I be sinning by not going to church because I need to uphold the Lunar New Year tradition of visiting relatives? At times I seriously wonder how to balance between tradition and religion, whether to swing one way or the other way.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

To a significant extent, “reduce, reuse, recycle” is the solution to our environmental woes as it encompasses many methods of environmental conservation. This method is quite useful but it requires the unity of different levels of societies to enforce it before it can succeed.

There are other methods towards the preservation of our environment, but the “reduce, reuse, recycle” method has the higher possibility of being a success.

Reduce can refer to the reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases and poisonous vapours which could lead to global warming and various respiratory diseases. The most basic level at which it can be kick-started is by the individual.

The individual would have to agree that environmental degradation, especially in developed cities, is a serious problem. Through this propogation, the various individuals can form the next level, which is the unification of religious groups, environmentalists, “green” advocates, ordinary citizens and media workers, among others, to rally to state authorities so as to initiate change.

The state then has to come up with some environmental policies, like heavier taxes and duties levied on firms with heavy industries, subsidies to cut down on the utilization of oil and burning cleaner alternatives like natural gas or fines for corporations which simply refuse to abide by the new laws set.

This would eventually cut down the pollution and global warming from firms, the chief source of the emissions. This could be effective but the society as a whole must be committed to implementing these measures so as to ensure a certain level of efficiency.

The governments would probably have to prioritise and place environmental policies at the top of their list, and the firms must also accept that by polluting the environment to gain profits, they would have to sacrifice and return some of them so as to restore the environment to its original pristine state.

An example would be the Western European states in the 1970s, where the society came together as a whole and forced their government to rethink, if not reverse, their environmental policies.

After having to cut through some bureaucratic red tape, a system where pollution quotas for firms was set was born. By means of their legislative powers, laws were put in place so as to reduce emissions. This would not have been possible without society and media workers applying pressure to their government so as to alter their mentalities.

Reusing can refer to the reusing of certain polluting goods like plastics and other organic materials. They cause pollution as they release poisonous gases like carbon monoxide and hydrogen chloride if incinerated, and at the same time would not decompose for a few centuries at least if buried underground in landfills.

Through education of the public and messages displayed in the mass media, some countries have sufficiently fostered a culture of their own consumers reusing their paper or plastic shopping bags, which reduces the need for production of these bags, which can potentially cause irreparable environmental damage through the liberation of poisonous gases.

From young, schoolchildren were taught that they had to reuse their plastic bags by their parents or teachers. As the state would have made it one of their top priorities to educate the children, these children were inculcated with positive environmental conservation values throughout their formative years.

With the parents’ help, they realised the vulnerabilities of the Earth’s environment and the consequences of simply ignoring them. With the right systems and values, they learnt how to love and protect the environment, which they are dependent on, and thus cut down on their utilization of plastic bags.

This is especially true in Western Europe, where consumers have to pay for the usage of plastic bags. This measure was effective in encouraging consumers to bring along their own more environmentally-friendly paper bags.

In addition, firms which produced plastic bags came up with innovative alternatives of producing plastic bags, like plastic bags which would self-decompose if exposed to too much direct light, thereby reducing environmental damage.

Governments also utilized the mass media to discourage the use of plastic bags through the various forms of the mass media like television, advertising billboards and newspapers. Once again, by chipping in together, Western European societies unified and decided to salvage the environment, leading to the reward of better air quality and fewer respiratory diseases.

Recycle refers mainly to paper products and water. This means that waste paper could be reused as environmentally-friendly companies chose to reproduce clean paper from the waste paper by bleaching them. This means that fewer trees were required to produce paper as the same piece of paper can be reused by consumers in their daily lives.

By cutting down fewer trees, the trees would absorb more carbon dioxide and produce more oxygen, leading to cleaner and fresher air, and also reduce carbon dioxide emissions as cutting down on trees would release the carbon dioxide they trap.

Water recycling refers to more stringent and careful, not profligate, use of water. For example, the consumers could reduce their showering time, brushing teeth time and cooking and so on. These measures to conserve water can ensure that lakes and rivers are at high levels, which generates more rain in the water cycle, allowing the process of water renewal to be continued.

One such country is Singapore, whose government urged and encouraged the citizens to save water by basically turning off their taps if there was no absolute or essential need to, like tooth brushing and taking showers instead of baths.

In a water-scarce country like Singapore, these measures helped to ensure that citizens were able to continue to obtain their supply of water straight from the taps through desalination and the process of reverse osmosis, rather than having to ration or end up with chronic shortages.

Another way to solve environmental woes is if countries cooperate with each other. The Key to Protocol, ratified in 1992 by some of the leaders of the world’s most heavily industrialized countries like Japan, Russia and Western Europe is one way.

In it, they set 1990 emission levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants as a base, in a bid to combat global warming and air pollution as they attempted to reduce those emission levels by up to 15%, which would pave the way for the easing of the world’s growing global warming.

This has met with relative success, mainly due to a drastic reduction in Russia’s emissions due to the collapse of Soviet industries after the fall of communism in the early 1990s.

Another way is by imposing carbon credits for the industrialized countries. This was a system where each country was given a particular carbon level. If some countries (usually those developing ones) had a surplus, they would be able to sell all these credits to the countries facing a shortage of credits.

Overall, the effect would see countries being able to control the amount of emissions they produced, or at least encouraged to, while at the same time, other countries would be able to earn sizeable profits from it.

Thus, the method of “reduce, reuse, recycle” is one of the best solutions because it encompasses various levels of society to work together so as to protect the Earth for all its current and future inhabitants.

Other collaborations like international cooperations are also possible, but their effect across societies is more limited as societies may feel they are not involved enough.

Taking Things For Granted ....

How often do we take the things and the people around us for granted? Our natural resources, our parents, our loves ones, our circumstances. Is it just human nature that we do not know a good thing until we lost it? Or that we never treasure what we have until it is gone?

For instance, someone manages to get a very good and understanding boyfriend / girlfriend who may be so into her / him. Yet these good people always finished last as they got dumped for someone more “exciting”. It is like the more obliging a person is, the more exploited he / she will be.

People also take their parents for granted and expect their parents to always be there for them. Nobody can always be there for anyone, not even parents. Some people think that because they are parents, so should support them financially, even well into their adulthood.

If it is just normal allowance here and there because the parents love the kids so much, it is still fine and I will love nice parents like these. But to just not work and live off the parents is another matter altogether.

Some also take their friends for granted, like expecting their friends to do this and that for them. No doubt as friends we all try to go all out and help each other, but it is irritating that some are just freeloaders, and always taking and taking yet not giving anything back. When situations like these crop up, I feel like telling that person nobody is obligated to help him / her.

People help each other out of their own free and good will. We can have a choice. Most people are nice, but when it comes to fair-weather friends, sometimes we have to let them know where we stand, otherwise they will forever take us for granted. Call me mean or whatever, but if one expects me to help only for his / her own benefits, yet stab me in the back, then I do not see why I need to put up with people like that.

Some people also take their qualifications for granted. For instance, those who entered university through the “normal“ route will tend to look down at those who entered university after a polytechnic education. Actually, not everyone who chose to do a diploma instead is academically-impaired. Some could be from the best schools with the best results, but just chose the diploma route instead of the ‘A’ level route.

A smarter choice actually, since three years in a polytechnic earns a diploma, then another two to three years for a degree after that. So the years they take are less than those who went through the normal ‘A’ levels then university.

But because the general opinion is that diploma-holders are those who could not enter a junior college in the first place, thus they would be forever labelled as “not as smart” or “academically-inclined” as the ‘A’ level holders.

But because diploma-holders know just how tough the world outside is if they have no degree, especially for those who have gone out to work before going back to school, they are normally the ones who really work hard and do their best to earn a good degree, whereas those ‘A’ level holders tend to take it for granted that they are already “smarter” in a way.

As a result, a lot of the first-class honours in some university courses used to be diploma-holders, whereas some ‘A’ level holders could not even make it to honours. I was guilty of that too. I thought I was studying subjects I like and rather proficient in, so although I did my tutorials and assignments, there was never an inclination to go out of the way to achieve better results. Which explains why I never made it.

It took me a few years and a tough working experience to realize just how valuable one is if one has a good degree, and how dispensable one is if one does not. Thus I have to make up for lost time now and achieve what I could have achieved in the past if I had not taken things for granted.

There are also some who took their religions for granted. My friends told me that those who converted are actually more pious than those who were born into the religion. I guess it may be because those who were born into the religion had it too easy, whereas those who converted knew it was what they wanted, all the more so if they went through disapprovals and difficulties before finally converting to the religion.

These will be the people who knows just how much they have gone through to believe in a certain faith, thus will really take their beliefs seriously. If I had been born into the religion, perhaps I would have backslided, given up or not deem it as important. But because I went through a few trials before finally able to have my upcoming baptism, I know this is what I want to belief in.

But the worst thing people take for granted is the environment and world they live in. People rig oil, waste petroleum, waste electricity and water, burn forests (granted some forests caught fire on their own due to the hot and dry weather), develop modern technology to make everyone’s lives comfortable but in the end became a threat to the environment.

Although more and more people have realised that the Earth is slowly dying, there are still many others who take things for granted. They let water run in the bath, do not bother turning off the electricity, drive everywhere even if it is a five-minute walk away.

Of course I am not saying we should stay off all these because people have to survive using these, but just not waste the precious resources, as the Earth can only be saved if everyone makes an effort to do something, instead of taking its natural resources for granted. One of these days all these will be gone, then how are we going to survive when that happens?

Should Modern Technology Owe Ecology An Apology?

The world is ever changing. One moment I see a flat land next to the train station near my place, and before you know it, all of a sudden high-rise buildings start sprouting out and all the empty land you are used to is gone in a flash.

That is what is happening to the world right now. One moment there are jungles and jungles of trees, and the next moment all the thousand-year trees are felled to build factories so as to build machines and electronic gadgets.

Although I do not really approve of clearing jungles for modern living, but still I guess it is alright if everything is done in moderation. However, due to all these modern living and technological advances, a lot of hidden jungle species became homeless and subsequently extinct when the jungles were cleared to make space for urbanisation.

But animals do not just lose their homes to clearing of forests. New technological improvement gadgets increase demand for electricity or energy which increases burning of fossil fuels which increases pollution problems. With forests and jungles being polluted, animals have no homes to live in. This also causes global warming, and animals that are not able to survive in these hot climates die out.

Toxic wastes from the factories were also dumped into the ocean and many marine animals were killed as a result. Luckily governments nowadays impose dumping tax so for factories who really must pollute the environment, they have to buy "dumping space" to limit their dumping activities.

The entire biological balance of the Earth had been turned upside down because of this. It is like when living things at the bottom of the food chain die out, those higher up the food chain will be affected. Sooner or later, more and more living things are going to be extinct.

Not only that, modern technology is now being used to breed living things. There is orchid hybridisation in school, where you breed two different types of orchids to get a totally different breed. Apparently many hybridisation farms are cross-breeding plants and flowers to see what they can get. Although this is a good breakthrough in botany research, it is still not wise to mess with Mother Nature.

Animals are also being cloned instead of being bred naturally. First come sheep, which animal goes next? Are humans also going to be cloned in the near future? Then what will become of us? Will we be considered as natural humans or some artifical intelligence species, product of some cloning experiement? And if humans can be cloned, will parents not ask for the best DNAs for their kids so they can have perfect children? Quite an idea actually. Wonder if I can clone some perfect guys for my girl friends (and myself of course!) and some perfect girls for my guy friends.

This would be something similar to the breeding experiment by Hitler's Nazis during the Second World War. The best female specimens (smart, beautiful, well-figured, graceful) would be chosen as "breeder" for the best male specimens (the best of the Nazi soldiers - handsome, smart, tall, muscular) to ensure the survival of the Aryan race.

And technological advances also mean animals are not being fed naturally anymore. Cows were fed food containing traces of meat, resulting in the Mad Cow Disease of few years ago. Of course the cows will get sick. They are herbivores; it is not in their biological makeup to take any form of meat, no matter how little traces there are. And there was also a rumour going around that chickens were being injected with some steroids or something to that effect so they could grow bigger and stronger.

Modern technology does achieve wonders, but is it going too far if things are going against nature? Afterall, if things are supposed to be of a certain way, is it a good idea to try to change the entire makeup of those things?

Conservation Of The Environment

The world is dying. Forests and jungles are being slashed and burnt at an amazing rate. Animals are being hunted down for their fur, skin, horns and other parts of their anatomy. All for what? Forests and nature reserves give way to factories and housing. Trees become paper, which are being wasted. Animals become food, clothing, bags, shoes and medicine. All because of one species – Man.

No doubt it is a world where it is a survival of the fittest. Lions eat zebras, tigers eat deer, beavers chop down trees using their teeth, so every species need some way to survive. But where do we draw the line?

We can draw a lot of lessons from the animals around us. Beavers fell tress to build dams, and their homes, which is acceptable. Lions eat zebras and although I pity the zebra, the lion is carnivorous and needs the meat to survive. Too bad the zebra did not run and escape fast enough. Still acceptable. Living things need air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and a shelter to live in. So anything within this realm is acceptable.

What do humans do? Humans are omnivorous, so we eat vegetables and animals. There are animals being specially reared for the purpose of food, like cows, chicken, goats, and in certain places, even sheep. All these are still acceptable. But what about other animals who are not reared for food? Animals like cats, dogs, monkeys, and now even aborted fetuses (alright, not really an animal). Why on earth would anyone even think of taking away these animals’ rights to live and feed on them like some sort of beastly act?

And what about the poor raccoons and minks who were mercilessly killed just to be made into coats? What about the finless sharks that got thrown back into the ocean and drowned as they were not able to swim anymore without their fins? What about the poor elephants, antelope and tigers who were killed just to get their horns and whip? And what about the poor trees that died after hundreds of years just to be made into paper, which were being mercilessly wasted?

If we eat and clothe due to survival, it is still acceptable. But man kills others for pleasure. Do we really need dog meat or monkey’s brain or sharks fin soup? Do we really need mink coats? Normal wool will suffice, at least you only shave the sheep, you do not kill the entire animal. Do we really need crocodile or cow skin bags? Leather is so expensive and smells funny too, not to mention the thousands of innocent animals who have to die to be made into handbags. And do we seriously need antelope’s horns or tiger’s whip or ivory?

It is due to all these acts that animals like minks, elephants, tigers and sharks are endangered nowadays. If these animals become extinct, how is man going to find a replacement for all their pleasures?

And what about the fast-destroying Amazon and the other forests around the world? Forest fires, slash and burn cultivation, timber. Trees take hundreds of years to grow back, and if the entire forest is gone, how is anything going to be made? Furniture, housing and paper will be gone. And at the rate paper is being wasted, there will soon be no more paper available.

At least in recent years there is more awareness on the conservation of the environment. In Singapore itself, companies are being encouraged to go green. Thus, as much as possible, we try to print double-sided documents and use old documents as rough paper. Recycling bins and shredders are also available for used paper to send to the various recycling centers. There are companies like SembCorp and Hyflux who deals in recycling waste and water. Unfortunately, confidential information still takes precedent over being environmentally-friendly, something I do not really agree on, but oh well…..

Even home appliances like shower hoses, computer monitors and lights have certain functions that help to preserve electricity and fuel, which ultimately create less energy. Then less coal will be burnt and less nuclear power will be utilized, which saves a lot of energy in the long run.

There are also mock sharks’ fins, fake fur and synthetic leather to replace all the genuine stuff. Animals like sharks and elephants are being conserved to the fullest. Hunting for horns is now prohibited, but unfortunately, there are still lots of poachers around who think only of making money over saving innocent lives. Can these people ever be more sensible?!

We have to do our part to help save the world. It is our world and if all the animal and plants die, humans will not be able to survive as well as we are all part of a huge ecosystem. Thus each of us must do our own part to help conserve and save the forests and animals.

The World Is But A Stage

What is the world coming to? Nowadays all I see and hear are disasters. Is the final holocaust as stated in the chapter on Revelations coming true? First comes forest burnings, then diseased animals, then viral infections in humans, then natural disasters, then bombings, and now plane crashes. Is it really getting more and more unsafe to live on Earth? Then perhaps I really shall migrate to Venus, except I may find it too hot, since it is so near the Sun. Maybe I shall go live on the Moon instead.

Ever since the Mad Cow disease in 1996, there has been one disaster after another. The mad cow disease came about due to the intelligence (or stupidity?) of humans, thinking that since the grass the cows were feeding on were getting more scarce, so decided to feed the cows canned food instead. Of course that will upset the entire body systems of the herbivorous cows! Which brought about mass slaugter of the poor cows.

First the cows, then the pigs, then the chickens, ducks and geese, then the fish and finally the humans. After the mad cow disease, came the pig virus, followed by the bird flu (which incidentally has never subsided), then the mercury poisoning of the fish, and the coronavirus of humans in the form of SARS. Which got me wondering, why were there mass slaughters of animals just because they were down with some form of "disease", yet when humans were down with SARS, they could have the best medical treatments? Are animals' lives really more worthless than humans' lives? A life is a life, no matter what type of animal or being one is.

Which means it has become dangerous to eat beef, pork, chicken, duck, goose and seafood. Then what is there left for us to eat? Plants and vegetables? What with all the forest fires, slash and burn cultivation and insecticides, who knows how many millions of innocent trees, flowers and fruit are dying as a result. Not as if people are already saving a lot of trees in the first place at the rate paper is being used.

Then what about the haze brought about by the forest fires? These smug will rise up into the atmosphere, mingling with the already polluted air, and creating a bigger hole in the ozone layer, resulting in much hotter climates and stronger ultraviolet rays. Sooner or later, all the ice bergs in Antarctica will melt, and the ocean level will rise ten-fold, which means Singapore will cease to exist, ie buried under the ocean. Our island country will then become another lost city of Atlantis.

As if all these are not enough, the environment and Earth is further threatened by natural disasters. First was the underground earthquake in the Indian Ocean last Boxing Day, resulting in such a big tsunami that practically almost destroyed Acheh, Phuket, Penang, Kedah, Sri Lanka and Maldives. The beautiful Maldives are gone! Now there was the big hurricane Katrina that almost destroyed the Lousiana state of New Orleans in the United States, earning it the nickname of "The US Tsunami". And what about reports of typhoons in Japan?

Seems as if all the elements of the Earth are disastrous in one way or the other. Forest fires are fire disasters, tsunamis are water disasters, earthquakes are land ("Earth") disasters. Now come air disasters like the plane crash in Medan, where the latest casualty figures are unknown, but so far there have been seven survivors, albeit in critical conditions. And why are there still no word from my parents since flying off on Friday? I am so worried especially after the plane to China crashed in Taiwan. I will so love to hear from them, wherever they are. I cannot even contact them since I do not even know which part of the world they are in right now and they do not have roaming services without the card. And what about "metal" disasters? The bombings of the New York twin towers on September 11, 2001 ("the 911 incident"), the recent bombings in London and various bomb threats in every part of the world.

It is a more dangerous world we are living in right now. That is why my friend told me to live life to the fullest and live a worthy life. I totally agree. Seeing that I can just die the next moment, it is best to do what I enjoy doing and live life to the fullest, so there will never be any cause for regret. Afterall, Antonio from "Merchant of Venice" said, "The world is but a stage, where everyone plays a part, and mine, a sad one." So it all depends on which part you want to play.