23 Oct 2010 – Pressure-Cooker!

After killing 26 people, damaged homes and crops in the Philippines, Megi continued to the NE of Taiwan killing 9 people and many more missing. HKG & southern Guangdong can breath a sigh of relief for now as Megi changed her course to the Fujian provinces.

Why is it that whenever I step into SIN, I have this claustrophobia feeling? 5mil people on an area of 7,022/sqkm or 17,275.7/sq mi (these figures never fail to fascinate me when I see how fast the pop increases) on top of the heat & humidity might be the main reasons. In a small island city like SIN, people seemed to be under a pressure-cooker and one never knows what it takes or when they need to vent, eg the nightmare with a taxi-driver/20 Apr posting. Glad to arrive in SIN when the buses are still running and my senior citizen fare to my HDB flat in Marine Parade cost less than S$1 🙂

Looking forward to catching up with family & friends. Being patriot is not on top of my list when I am here. That feeling of pride for my country is only when I am away and people comment on how clean and safe it is here!

Stepped into SIN on the day where the haze was reported to be the worst ever, over 100 PSI/Pollution Standards Index. A reading of 0 to 50 is considered good, while 51 to 100 is moderate. A figure above 100 is unhealthy. My family tells me to rest, Henry tells me to drink a lot of water and I have intentions to listen to all of that. News stated that SIN Foreign Minister George YEO met will Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty NATALEGAWA to discuss the situation who has claimed that Indonesia has been succeeding to reduce haze caused by forest fires. The PSI reading today is over 60!

For two years living in a neutral country
I have been able to see through the haze of propaganda
to reach something which my conscience tells me is the truth –
John Amery