味道

公元2016年的最后一天，以小红点的市井小食为终结。纯属巧合，却是个意外的美好完结。没有绚烂的元旦烟火、随即而逝的光辉。只有小贩中心的味道，朴实无华，却又很踏实。

地点是旧机场路的小贩中心。百余个摊位，知名度也有高低之分。不管排名，只寻找自己认同的味道。偌大的小贩中心挤满了小贩。是这些人让食物留下了印记。也是这些人，常常让我看得很开心。

有一家烤鸡翅，是机缘巧合发现的。是因为跟着某个端着一盘烤鸡回去改换打包的食客而发现的。只见老板二话不说，很有礼地帮食客打包起来，也没另外收费。站在碳炉旁，整张脸都被热气熏红了，老板却还是能笑脸盈盈地招呼。应该是这个缘故，让脚步这回不由自主地走回去。

偏离本地风味，突然想吃小笼包。找到了一家，却是拉长着嘴脸的胖女人站岗。脚步竟不由自主地往后挪。不信任自己的感觉，所以自我催眠一番后便走上前点了10个小笼包。胖女人没作声。接过钱、找还钱，还是金口不开。问了一句，她也没好气地答话。制作小笼包的师傅拿起面团开始捏皱褶。原本精巧的皱褶，竟变成了那女人的黑脸。那两盒小笼包还没蒸好，味道就已经坏掉了。

第一次光顾的rojak摊是要挂号的。轮到号码才能上前跟老板点餐。老板架着眼镜，活像个书生，谦和地与食客接洽。那天，因为rojak已经售罄了，所以得找另一家。发现了这家“三代同摊”。三代人，各负责一个岗位。一人接订单，其他三人各负责准备一项食物。分工合作，就是这样子的。小小的摊位空间里挤了四个人，没见谁拉长了脸。接订单的阿姨脸上没笑容，语气是和善的，还频频问一名食客家里有没有air fryer。似乎是风马牛不相及的事。原来是担心他路途遥远，烤鱿鱼打包回去后就不好吃了。其他食客听了都忍俊不禁。负责包薄饼的小妹递上食物时还因为让食客久等而充满歉意。啊，把食客当人看待了。

这摊的薄饼和rojak水平其实一般，却让我记下了他们的味道。是的，跟食物似乎完全无关。但我餐前餐后都吃得很开心，却也是真实的。吃，到了这个时候，已经不是为果腹而已。

说过了，我无法为吃而卑躬屈膝。因为吃，真的真的，对我来说，不只是味蕾的事而已。心顺了，才能是完整的味道。

The concrete lava to feed our 6.9 or 10 million more human masses

 

Now you can still see these fields......

 

 And soon, you may not. As they may be converted into these…..

these…..





 

and these…….

 

 

The fields are fast-becoming an oasis in this concrete jungle of ours. Fields which I have paid so little attention to in the last decade, almost non-existent like so many other things around me, that immediately spring into meaningful existence the moment I lost them or am going to lose them.

Seconds are ticking. These green spaces which live with us unnoticeably, may very soon succumb to the irresistible monetary yields of property development.

“The fields and copses are in retreat; the concrete is spreading like slow lava.”

An apt observation from Daniel Hannan, a MEP of South East England with reference to the impact of UK’s unchecked immigration on UK’s [Here] physical landscape, could be applied to Singapore’s context with little difference, except for the speed of the spread of the concrete lava. Ours is devouring our once valuable green spaces like a bush fire. In replacement are blocks of concrete building that bring along even more carbon dioxide and heat emission.

We prided ourselves once as the garden city, way before the birth of the new gadget Garden by the Bay. Not so much about the abundance of individual parks and gardens but that the idea of the entire island being the garden itself. Trees form an indispensable part in our living quarters. We have avenues of trees on our roads and estates, which can be a luxury in many urban centres, and there is the availability of green spaces intertwining residential areas.

These days, the number of concrete blocks is seriously set to overtake the number of trees that we have although I would have no statistics to prove this. The green spaces which I used to be indifferent to and as well as this garden city of ours, have to make way for the newly-tinted Singaporeans and foreigners seeking greener pastures over here. At the expense of our very own green pastures which are dwindling at an alarming speed.

Somebody is pawning our green spaces.  

The Rainfall and the Heat

So Vivian, climate change is not the sole culprit for our ponding, flash floods, floods or whatever innovative terms used to describe the situation of large amount of water that obstructs our way of passage for a prolonged period of time. If only you would behold the number of buildings produced in the last decade alone and the imminent ones listed in our “Draft” Master Plan. Simultaneously, new underground MRT lines are constructed, emptying our grounds underneath.

When buildings devour the green space where rain water could drain, we will be in turn devoured by our tropical rainfalls/storms.

It is a cause and effect. Humans are part of the environment. And I am not a scientist nor a doctor.

The reality of disappearing green spaces is compounded by the amount of CO2 produced from the constructions itself and post-construction human activities. We know what CO2 will bring. Inevitably, we contribute towards the increasing temperature with increasing CO2 emissions.

Concrete buildings are also adding weight to our island. We are looking at tons and tons of concrete buildings that we have generated and will eventually generate in a span of two decades.

A Stressed-Out Island

Someone is stretching our little island both overground and underground with excessive constructions of buildings and digging of tunnels.

Our island is sinking literally and gradually with the amount of weight that is piled onto it. The sea level is already rising, with or without our island sinking.

Not only our people are stressed out, our poor island too.

And all pursued under the name of Singapore inc.

There is no master plan as to when this lunacy of unrestrained constructions will slow down, if ever.

So, appreciate our remaining green spaces while the sun shines.

我们是谁

曾贵为一国总统，却自以为是地否定狮城子民至今已形成属于自己的共同身份。经过了三代人、近50年的建国历程，狮城岛国最早的海外移民，原来，还无法建立自己的身份。

仿佛狮城岛民什么都不能是，或者说，任何海外人士都能即刻成为狮城子民。我们的破英语、烂母语……既不东又不西，也曾就此以为我们什么都不能是。 

然而，当英国唐人街似曾相似的中式食品安慰不了味蕾的南洋思乡情、当英国人酷爱的印度咖哩炮制不出狮城咖哩的风采时，你不得不承认，狮城移民的祖国母体文化已经演化了。我那来自唐山的外婆在世时，爱喝的并不是中国茶，而是kopi。

狮城的饮食文化，体现的是共同的社会、政治和经济环境下，各族移民的融合、延伸。思想、言行举止、价值观也必定在共同的环境下进行了磨合以及演变。文化、种族、语言、宗教的差异存在。但联系着大家的就是那共同的生长环境。共同身份也在产生、演进。

身份这一种区分你我差别的理念，你说有就有，没有也就不存在。然而，身在外地时，还是无法不承认自己不是中国人，不是台湾人，不是香港人，更不是英国人的事实。

语言特色、国民服役、饮食文化、集体怕输的行为等，都无法完全代表狮城岛民的身份。身分这概念抽象，难凭几个标准来限定，也没有一套标准能作代表。

它可有，也可无。只要岛民觉得自己跟其他民族不同，那身份就存在。有些人需要，有些则不。不需要身份的人，无法否定对其他人而言，身份具体存在的事实。

有些人的眼里只看到钞票的具体颜色，自然看到不到抽象的概念存在。所以，共同身份这东西，也就自然看不见。

A Singaporean reporter sharing her new-found pride of being a Singaporean

A visit to Spain for an event and a witness to protests, high unemployment rate, inefficiency and even fluctuating weather gave rise to her pride of being a Singaporean.{Here} Because of the inconveniences that she encountered over the few days of weeks, Jeanette Tan decided that she could barter her education debt, our issues on housing, foreign influx and inflation in exchange for the conveniences that she value…..To each his own.    

However, intriguingly, her revelation begets two debatable questions:   (1) The constitution of her pride and (2) the need to play down others to boost her national identity  

(1) A glance through her listed sources of national pride. Orderliness, high employment rate, efficiency and consistent weather, in her own interpretation, constitute a Singaporean. And suffice to make a proud one too.

To side track a little—imagine my eldest sister visited a friend's house to come back telling me how beautiful her friend's sofa was and the abundance of food that they had at their place; my second sister visited that same friend came back telling me how cosy her friend's house was and how good her friend's brother was at computer games. Both my sisters chose a different perspective to judge their friend's house but it was my second sister who was able to see beyond the materials.

But the reporter could not. Weather aside, her pride circled largely around materialistic traits. And thinking a little beyond, these traits buoy down to the results of “good governance”, little or no credits were given to the citizens of our country. Not to mention that “good governance” is highly disputable in our case, if we think along the line of the huge maintenance cost of our Cabinet and compared that to the cost of the Spanish Cabinet for a country of such scale and size. We cannot forget the fact that the first 30 highly paid politicians in this universe all came from Singapore {Here} . We must therefore remind ourselves for the premium that we are made to pay. In such light, “good governance” is not a blessing or a gift from the providence, but AN EXPECTATION. It still remains to be calculated economically, psychologically, socially and politically, whether such maintenance costs are met with proportionate returns.

One interesting thing to note amongst the reasons of the reporter's pride, is the severe lacking of any country-specific characteristics, ie. what constitutes Singapore and a Singaporean? Surely beyond high-employment rate, efficiency and social peace? What about our outwardly less civil but inwardly warm-hearted traits and the simplicity of our people or our ethnic vibrancy? Can sole governance be an absolute representation of a country?

Seemingly, on a bold assumption, any place on earth that could provide high employment, calm weather and efficiency will be equally worthy of the reporter's pride?

I am not saying that I dislike high employment, efficiency and social peace. Nobody does. But certainly, these would not be the things that would MAKE ME PROUD of my nationality. Rather these are the materials which I will enjoy, desire and APPRECIATE. I am materialistic too, like many of us.  

(2) As for the latter, the constant need of self-glorification through playing down others is really uncalled for. In fact, it’s a manifestation of low esteem.

Imagine again, my eldest sister visited her friend’s place came back only to say, “How wonderful my house/family is! I am so proud of ourselves! We have abundance of good food, nicer-coloured walls and cleaner toilet bowls.” What kind of person would you make out of my eldest sister? To denounce her friend's house/home to glorify herself, my eldest sister is uncivil, shallow, self-centred and pitiful. Such mindset will never allow her to appreciate the goodness of others. Moreover, she overlooked the fact that good and bad are both sides of the same coin. Additionally, such act of comparison is also simplistic.

We have a bad habit of consistently comparing other nations with ourselves to convince our "success". And not realizing that the gesture of comparison as in most cases are only selective to different extent where the differences of history, languages, demography, geography, climate, social, economic and political systems of the nations involved are disregarded and therefore the gesture of comparison itself is simplistic and limited in scope. Because no two countries in this world are alike. Yet, our Southeast Asia neighbours are still our faithful negative examples to re-affirm our “successful story”, where we are totally oblivious to each country’s unique historical and cultural circumstances. Such gesture only serves to flaunt our shallowness and naivety.

Not forgetting that any country of this planet has a far longer and richer history and development, therefore more complicated than ours. It is therefore narrow-minded to denounce any nation based on a few factors or brief encounters. And it is even bad taste to sing praises of ourselves whilst turning noses at others! It is appalling, how one can condemn Spain in absolute after a brief stay and a few incidents?

The spirit of a nation goes beyond the façade of infrastructure and administrative system that distinct itself from any other place on earth. And this would be the trait that I choose to be proud of. Again, to each his own.

软硬兼具

习惯性地把先进的定义锁定在视觉角度。于是，肉眼只会搜寻亮丽的建筑外观、交通系统的现代化、整洁的街道……

直到第一次踏入闻名于世的伦敦地下铁，迎面而来的便是列车、地下铁站的破旧和设计的苍白；英式古典建筑外的“现代”楼房都仿佛停滞在七十年代的氛围里，才推翻原有对先进的观念。

是否就能仅以外观便把英国的先进判死刑？

新旧程度、体积、设计的新鲜度、科技的多寡，往往是先进度的指标。的确，我们对此迷信不已。

于是，体积巨大的购物商场不厌其烦地涌现、设计推陈出新、旧建筑让位、新科技的堆积……让空中花园、高耸入云端的建筑、开放式的厕所、崭新的交通来相继标贴我们的先进。

砸钱买先进。既方便，又能立竿见影。

因此，富裕的杜拜挤满了高楼，也打造了以棕榈和世界为图形的群岛，阿拉伯联合酋长国却始终与先进沾不上边；神州大地拼命地以高速的动车追先进，动车意外却证明了仅靠硬件上的先进是肤浅的。

外观虽然有限，可是英国社会包容无限。残疾人士、有特别需要的一群、同性恋者、单亲妈妈、妇女、长者、贫困儿童、殉职军人等不同群体的人士得以光明正大地存在着。媒体能够发表不同群体的声音，也能兼容不同政治理念的声音。在政治权势当前，市民不必卑躬屈膝。那也是一种先进的体现，是一种比硬件上的先进更坚固的文明。

我贪图硬件的华丽，却也觉得只重硬件而轻软件的表面先进越来越让人吃不消。

你怕吗？

拥挤的地铁列车上，一名老妇上了车。一位女搭客偶然抬头，发现了不远处的老妇站着，便立即让座。站在这名女搭客前的一名阿姨见状，便以迅雷不及掩耳的速度，一屁股坐到位子上，并沾沾自喜一番。那名女搭客发现，没说什么，就一直站到下车为止。原本的一番好意，变成了让自己和老妇站到下车。女搭客由始至终都选择了缄默以对，不为自己或老妇把位子争取回来。

搭客中有人看懂了这一幕，窃窃私语。可是我们也一样，最终都选择了置身事外。是的，不过是一个座位而已。死不了人的。反正也不关我们的事。

某日，听到身后有人清喉咙的声音。转头一看，那人理所当然地把口中的痰吐到地上。让我看傻了眼。这个年代里，吐痰的竟是一名年轻小伙子。优雅社会还未达成，那一口痰就让社会倒退了三十年。也不过是一口痰，死不了人的。更不关我的事。

是吗？

纳粹份子来抓共产份子时，我不是共产份子，不关我的事，所以我选择缄默；来抓犹太人时，更不关我事，所以我还是选择沉默；他们来抓我时，已经没其他的有人可以站出来为我说话了。

到了死了人，关乎到自己身上时，才算关我的事时，往往为时已晚。

站出来劝阻那名吐痰者确实让我胆战心惊。可是，我更害怕的是见证自己的社会慢慢地走向沉沦。我们的价值观、我们的市容、我们的治安，除了自己之外，没有人会为我们捍卫的。

难道你不怕吗？

生日快乐2011。

我最近常有这样的感觉，有你们真好。

是你们牵动了我这一辈子里，第一次的悸动；让我有所感悟。在遭遇挫折之际、遇到不公、不讲理的际遇时，就会猛地想起你们的坚毅不屈的付出。去建设公正、平等的民主社会。以微薄的力量去实践自己所坚信的信念。

即使常常事与愿违、即使不断地失败。即使人心仍是那么的脆弱和自私。

所以，就在国家生日的这一天里，即便是漆黑的隧道中，我仍感欣慰，我能够享有你们无私的祝福和坚毅的力量。

单薄却坚定的力量。让人振奋。毕竟，我们是新加坡公民。

我们的幸福、繁荣与进步，唯有靠自己，责无旁贷。

8月9日的这一天里，仅以包含了大家无尽心血与不平的增长花红(Growth Dividend)献之。

这一天以后，让我们为我们自己的未来继续共同努力。誓愿不分种族、语言和宗教，团结一致。

The bouquets of fireworks lit up the dark, solemn sky,

in the attempt of projecting the spirit of joy, momentarily,

on this particular day.  

The sparks succeeded in blinding the sky with their flamboyant

colours and brightness. And precisely at that brief moment of the array

of sparks that splattered across the sky, it was too when the shadows

of the fireworks were cast on earth.

So for every firework that we saw, we have to endure too, the shadows

that come with it. Unknowingly ourselves.





And so, we happily, intoxicate ourselves, in seconds of joyous flame,

and took with us the shadows that settle here for good.



So, Happy Birthday.

SIN-UK-SIN

A few years of absence does help to put things at home into perspective.

And the first thing is embracing the many hardware of home, be it the transport system or the convenience of services. Even if it’s only the façade, the cleanliness, orderliness and some modern-looking skyscrapers are at times pleasing to sight and enough to fulfill one’s vanity desires. The luxuries of a fairly comprehensible transport network in operation for more than 15 hours a day at an affordable price (although at an accelerated inflation rate); cheap eateries at all corners of the island day and night, some even with 24 hours service; a labyrinth of retail shops in business for the day and night and most days of the week; the novelty of Sunday full branch banking services at some places etc….. it became a drag each time at the thought of returning to the UK. No doubt, I cherish very much some of the conveniences mentioned above and the safety too.

The Cost of Convenience

The incident to which I was forbidden entry to a shop in Durham, northeast of Britain, at 4.30pm in the evening--half an hour prior to the closing time struck me hard. Not only for the inconvenience that it caused, but the revelation of the luxury of the working life of retail employees in the UK.

Short working hours and with a minimum wage protection. And it doesn’t just stop short at retail services only. And you know what I mean.

While eateries in the UK can afford to close at 3pm on a Sunday—prime time for business in our context, and restaurants operating half day, many of ours run round the clock for business. Special mention to our hawkers who man many hours a day behind their stalls in a small and a high-temperature working environment to provide us with (still) affordable food anywhere anytime; while UK retail businesses can close for the day on the dot, ours allow customers to go on with their shopping well after closing time; our transport workers (bus drivers, cabbies) throng through the chaos of our traffic and endure long working hours too; employees of Sunday banking burning Sundays at work; being instructed by multi-million dollar ministers to work “cheaper, faster and better” is further challenged by the influx of cheaper manpower from overseas.

Scratching beyond that surface of convenience, such “luxuries” are enjoyed with a growing sense of guilt. Especially when the thought of it at the expense of our fellowmen (working cheaper, faster and better) creeps into mind.

The Big Picture

The years of absence, especially, saw the increasing growth of senior citizens working at foodcourts, fast food restaurants, toilets or making a living by sales of tissues and collection of cardboards; disabled people too took part in the “professions”—sights that are phenomenally rare in the UK society despite their “poor” infrastructures.

In a span of 5 years, this “efficient” growth of such strata of our society paints a big picture not, as we are often been instructed to focus at the big picture over small personal inconveniences?

A big picture of a nation obsessed by tangible values over the intangibles…epitomized by our minister who toyed with the idea of housing our senior citizens in land-cheaper Malaysia while our island could afford large no. of golf courses and private properties; where the collective contributions of our citizens towards nation-building is negligible saved for the elite and politicians; where ethics and morals are bartered for political and social securities and monetary returns; where future generations will be debt-laden for the necessities in life—family time, accommodation, transport, jobs and retirement; where quick fixes are used for long-standing issues with no sustainability and accountability.

Such BIG pictures struck fear right into my heart.

Selective Comparison

Indeed, comparing to the Sahara dessert, we live in absolute heaven. We can spend our lifetime, habitually using the plights of citizens of other nations with not the slightest intention of bettering the lives of those, but instead unabashedly, to glorify our “economic success” and justify our mistakes, notwithstanding the fact that the definition of success itself is disputable.

Is that not ill-mannered, narrow-minded and shallow of us?

Of being more preoccupied with self-glorification than learning the strengths of others so as to aspire to be better. No, we chose complacency instead.

And not forgetting that the act of comparison is always selective.

When I witness our poor being so much poorer than the “poor” in the UK (who has access to free medical care, free housing and benefits) and ironically we have more rich than the UK (we have the most number of millionaire in proportion to our population), it is unsettling for we, as citizens, to be instructed again, to accept that growing income-disparity, a global trend, as a normality, therefore leaving the issue to the wind.

While being mindful and appreciative of what we have, at the same time, we cannot allow these possessions, tangibles and intangibles, to bribe us into the apathy of the universal stand of morals and principle.

The Cost of being A Human

Denouncing socialism or welfare system does not eradicate the need of taking care of our senior citizens or the less fortunate strata.

Having spent more than four decades of achieving the psychological level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, living by the calculator to measure the cost of every human, from discouraging the third child to encouraging more births with monetary incentives; from streaming the more-abled students from the less-abled so as to utilize our resources; from monetary incentives to attract talents into the political arena….but a minister who owes his salary to the public calculates his own worth to the last cent will understand no value of any human lives besides himself. Are we any better in our heartware than 4 decades ago?

And we bear witness to a MP who told us that money brings proportionate dignity and respect; and a multi-million-dollar-minister who scrimped on a $30 allowance for the needy.

But ethics and morals, the fundamentals of any civilized and healthy society, are priceless. We cannot continue to blanket the abnormalities and injustices of our society, or leave them to providence, in exchange for the ever increasing cost of “political stability” and “social security”. Where the cost would be borne by the future generations, in tangible sense, for instance:

(i) Longer and bigger housing loan for public housing at a 99-year-lease.

(ii) Prices of new public housing and medical cost increase in many folds while median income remains stagnant in the last 20 yrs.

Need no rocket science to prove that cost of living outstrips our incomes, rising tangible cost impact quality of life, retirement funds for ourselves and our children: that is the intangible cost. Working longer hours to keep reins of the tangible cost is adding burden to our intangible cost definitely.

* * *

When we begin to realize political and social securities fail to compensate the deep sense of insecurity inside our peoples on our future quality of life and retirement, we know that GDP alone cannot suffice in measuring the quality of our lives. Frighteningly, it plays no role in ethics either.

Surely, a successful nation is not defined by the number of hubs or the number of eye-dazzling architecture, but by both tangibles and intangibles. And only such a nation is truly worthy of respect, which again is neither quantifiable in dollars or cents.