Farewell, Mr Lee

Queue at the Padang, Thursday

Singapore's Founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, passed away at 3.18am, on the 23rd of March 2015, at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) where he had been warded for severe pneumonia.  This triggered the start of a week of national mourning.  People from all walks of life mourned his loss.  They left tributes at SGH, where he passed away, at the Istana, where the private family wake was held, and at Parliament where he lay in state until his funeral service on 29th March.  Thousands waited for hours, queuing to pay their last respects (myself amongst them).  Each journey his coffin subsequently took was made through streets line with people.  Everyone wanted to say good bye to one of the founding fathers of modern Singapore.  

Mr Lee said once that Singaporeans are champion grumblers.  Somehow, this week, we decided to prove him wrong for once.  Despite hours queueing in the hot sun, despite more hours in the rain waiting for the funeral cortege to pass, Singaporeans took it all with good humour.  Strangers handed out drinks, food and umbrellas to those waiting in line.  We remembered the uncommon privilege we had in growing up in a society where success in life did not depend on the family you were born to or the colour of your skin.  It was a time which bound us together as Singaporeans.  Amidst all the sorrowful thoughts, there was a confidence that we could go on as one nation, one people, one Singapore.

Aside from queuing (mercifully, for only three hours), I visited the tribute site at SGH and also waited by the roadside for the funeral cortege to pass.  But much time was spent reading through the many newspaper articles, including in overseas newspapers, talking about his legacy.  Some critics complained that the hype in the media was just another attempt at propaganda by the ruling party. But the mass turnout, far greater than anticipated, and the soaring of the Singapore spirit indeed showed SIngaporeans' true respect and gratitude for Mr Lee.

At the SGH Tribute Site

Goodbye, Mr Lee.

Lessons from the Hotel New World Disaster

On 15 March 1986, the Lian Yak Building at the junction of Serangoon Road and Owen Road, more commonly known as Hotel New World, collapsed in a less than a minute, burying numerous people amidst the rubble.

 Immediately after the collapse, the rescue teams were at the site, trying to pull people out of the rubble.  The teams worked day and night and eventually managed to rescue 17 people.  But 33 people lost their lives.  To   mark the event, MHA together with the National Library has put together an exhibition and run a series of talks.  I attended the talk on 8 July 2012, by Dr Edward Pang, on "Disaster Preparedness: A Medical Perspective".  In his talk, Dr Pang drew inspiration from the Boy Scout motto: "Be Prepared".  He highlighted not only what the country and community needs to do in preparation but what we as individuals can contribute.  For example, training in first aid and CPR, ensuring that we have some basic supplies at home in case of an emergency, and so on.  

Dr Pang also drew many important lessons which can be applied outside the disaster zone: the importance of innovation, and common sense.  He told simple examples to prove his point: using broken furniture and/or doors to improvise splints, and the use of perfume to disguise the smells under the rubble and thus make it easier and more tolerable for the rescue team to do their work.  I asked Dr Pang what he felt was the key factors for successfully tackling  a disaster: his response - discipline, clear-thinking and presence of mind.  Preparation, and practice, are key to ensuring that we keep our cool and respond when disaster strikes.  He gave the example of how years of practice setting drips served him well, when he had to set up a drip whilst lying on his stomach, in a dark and cramped environment.  (The victim's leg was pinned down by rubble.  Medical intervention helped save her leg, and ensured that her other functions, including kidney function, continued to work well.)

Preparation.  Practice. Presence of mind.  Indeed, critical requirements to meet disasters, both great or small.

Dr Pang ended his talk with a short tribute to his late colleague, Dr Hanif Singh, who had died a few years ago. At the time of the Hotel New World Disaster, Dr Singh was a young Medical Officer.  Bravely, he volunteered to go into the tunnels to provide medical care to those beneath.  Dr Pang tried to discourage Dr Hanif, but Dr Hanif in his turn reminded Dr Pang that he was a family man.  Dr Hanif continued, "If I die, I am alone.  My family will not suffer."  In the event, both doctors went through the tunnels (together with the SAF doctors).  It was this indomitable spirit of self-sacrifice which drove the Hotel New World rescue team, much honour and praise to them.

After the talk, I walked around the exhibition area.  This covered the background to the collapse, and the results of the enquiry into its causes.  The shocking news was that apparently the building owner was so stingy, that he did not want to spend money on a proper architect to draw up the building plans, and cut corners on a lot of the building requirements.  Whilst he lost his life in the ensuing disaster, unfortunately his negligence cost many others their lives as well.  For more information, check here.

It has been a long time since I have posted a poem on this blog, but somehow in writing this post, I was reminded of Rudyard Kipling's inspiring poem, "If", on a father's lessons on life to his son.  So I thought I'd reproduce it here.


"If -"


If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise.

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and  Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much.
If youcan fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is  more, you'll be a Man, my son!

A Momentous General Election

Today, 7 May 2011 marks the end of a momentous General Election for Singapore.  It has been 10 days of intensive campaigning, when political parties fought the battle for the hearts and minds of Singaporeans.  One can only hope that the outcome is known, it will indeed be in the best interest of Singapore and Singaporeans.

On a less serious note, here is Mr Brown's podcast which  summarises some of the highlights of this election:

Tragedy

It has been 8 days since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, a week in which Japanese lived under the spectre of a nuclear fallout.  A week of great tragedy, in which so many were left dead or injured, homeless and hungry. 

In the light of this terrible tragedy, our own problems should seem almost trivial.  But they are not.  A death of a pet dog, the illness of a beloved family member, are personal to us.   And it is not wrong, or selfish to focus on these personal concerns. For our losses, our fears and our worries, bind us to those who are suffering so greatly, so far away. 

The Youth Olympic Games are Here!

As I type this,  the Opening Ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore is underway (I'm watching it on TV).  Now that it is officially here, I find myself quite caught up/interested in the games. Maybe it is because the Olympic flame drove past my house last Sunday (well, actually the main road outside my house). Or maybe because the "Give Way" signs on the roads are a constant reminder of the Games.  Or the inspiring story of little Wei Jie following the flame for 15km wearing flipflops. 

Whatever it was, I found myself standing on the roadside yesterday at noon, waiting for the flame to pass down Lim Liak Street in Tiong Bahru (the day's route is here). My colleagues had volunteered for the honour of bearing the flame and I was happy to be there at this historic moment to support them.  We waited for a bit and two buses of young people drove past, cheering and waving (we waved back). Then, the flame appeared and my first colleague's moment of glory had arrived! 

All too soon, however, he had to pass it on to the next torchbearer (another colleague).  The moment was over.

And, as I type this line, the Opening Ceremony has just ended. I loved the spectacular ending- the last torchbearer, Darren Choy, the 15 year old sailor, running across the reflecting pool to the lighthouse at the end - and the flame streaking up the tower to the lamp on top. It was so special moment - that last lone runner, the reflections on the water, the mist and lights in the background.  At this mystical, magical moment, I felt proud of Singapore. 

The End of an Era - Goodbye Dr Goh Keng Swee

(photo from CNA website)

Like so many Singaporeans, I was saddened to hear last Friday 14 May 2010 of the death of Dr Goh Keng Swee.  I have never met Dr Goh, but his policies and actions have surely shaped my life in so many ways. I was probably one of the first batches of Singaporeans to go through streaming in secondary school (ended up in the Express class), and of course encountered his legacy in the workplace, through dealing with agencies he created and through reading and hearing of his actions and practices from others. 

For that reason, I thought I would also join the crowds to pay my last respects to Dr Goh as he lay in state in Parliament House.  It was a hot day with the sun positively blazing down on us, but still the queue built up steadily.  It did move quite fast, with crowd control done by the SAF officers.  There were young school children, parents with their kids, older Singaporeans coming alone including a short, elderly lady with swollen legs which made it difficult for her to even walk (not to mention rather improbably dyed raven black hair).  We moved forward, signed the many condolence books, and walked forward to the coffin where he lay.  His widow was seated beside it.  I said a quick prayer and then it was over. 

As I left, I realised that the Old Guard of leaders was indeed slipping away.  Mr Rajaratnam, Mr Lim Kim San, and others, and nearer home amongst the MPs, Mr Ho See Beng.  One of my younger colleagues confessed that she was not familiar with what Dr Goh had done.  I was surprised as somehow, I thought that there had been so much written in recent years (eg MM's Memoirs, the recent book "Men in White" etc.  It is sad to think that the younger generation these days probably don't read the newspapers, or books of this nature and because of that take for granted the Singapore of today.

But when I was reading through the stories on Dr Goh in the papers over the past few days, it struck me that the first generation of leaders were perhaps far less distanced from the rest of us masses than their legacy makes them out to be.  The stories of Dr Goh sitting and drinking in the mess with his soldiers, and telling risque stories; and working out how to improve his golf, paint a far different picture (or maybe a more complete picture) than the analyst par excellence and the architect of the Singapore economy and the builder of its defences.  We owe him a tremendous debt.

Not sure how long this will stay up but here is link to channelnewsasia videos on Dr Goh.

Earth Hour (well almost)

I tried to get my family to commemorate Earth Hour today. If Changi airport can turn off non-essential lights for one hour from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, so could we, I thought.

And since I wanted to turn off everything except the fans, had to work out what to do in that one hour and decided that we would have a later dinner than normal, by candlelight. I made a shepherd's pie and a simple salad, with a pear cake courtesy of Chocolate & Zucchini for dessert. She makes the cake for tea, I reserved it for dinner just so I had something to round off the meal (lengthen it out a little more).

Well, my mother had a good time arranging the candles on the dining room table and we brought the food out just in time for lights' out. Peeking outside the house, however, it was only too apparent that the majority of the neighbourhood were blithely going about their normal household routine as opposed to helping save the planet. The family ate dinner; my sister told us how her husband, currently in Sydney, realised that he was the only one not observing Earth Hour as all around him, buildings were dark. We finished eating quite quickly, well within the hour. Washed up by candlelight and the light from the house next door.

After tidying up - there was nothing much to do. No TV, no internet surfing available. The family sat around, restlessly. We have lost the gentle art of conversation. My father went to his room and a thin slit of line was seen below his door. Finally, 9.31pm came and the lights went on.

Table Tennis - Olympics Team Finals

Last Sunday our women's team played the Chinese for a Gold Medal. Well, we did not win and many did not expect us to. But unfortunately Li Jiawei said before the game that she did not expect to win and many people then felt that she was not showing fighting spirit. What will make people happy? Why penalise Jiawei for forgetting how to be politically correct? The newspaper article also commented that she showed more fight during her semi-final match with Zhang Yining in the women's singles. Well, what does one expect? She had not got any medal yet!


I'm quite proud of our table tennis team, so much so that I made a video of the match off my tv. Fortunately, at a point they were doing well. Here is my little video:

Go girls! London 2012!

Oh, Frabjous Day!

It is not every day that Singapore gets an Olympic medal, so I thought I would commemorate it. Well done to our table tennis women's team of Li Jiawei, Wang Yuegu, and Fang Tianwei. They have done us proud.

Watching the Olympics, I realised that for many events, it is about consistent excellence. Take the men's gymnastics individual medal, for example. Yang Wei performed consistently well across all apparatus and took the Gold, predictably. But the gentleman who took the Bronze won because he did a great vault, and was consistent throughout the rest of his performances without making mistakes. He was more surprised than anyone else when those ranked above him put a foot wrong or fell off the apparatus, leaving him in third place.

On the subject of gymnastics, I really am very cross with the Starhub folk. They didn't show the repeat telecast of the female gymnastics individual medal! Instead they show women's football, volleyball and beach volleyball. Goodness me. The next day, the papers feature the performance of the female gymnasts and don't give any newsprint to the other three events. Of course pride of place and the most amount of coverage goes to our table tennis gals! Well done again to them!

Finally, I found a number of Olympic atheletes have started blogging. It is quite interesting to browse through them. Here's the link.

p.s. The photo is of the logo on my Beijing Olympics t-shirt, given to me by my classmate who works in the Sports Bureau in one of the Chinese provinces.