have we reached the end of the road?
went to e uni library for e first tme today, and while at home, as I was wondering how the book returning worked......
I realized that Singapore is very advanced, in all senses…… always tryin to make things more up-to-date and efficient……. Took a trip down memory lane to the good old marine parade library, situated opposite the old marine parade ntuc, and one by one, e details of e place just flooded in…….. the long counters we had to queue at to return or borrow our books..... everything was done manually…… the now-defunct turnstiles….. the rack next to e stairs where we dumped e books we just returned… the old stairs with e bubble kind of glass walls next to it……. The simplicity of the layout of e place…… everything was so simple and down to earth…… and homey……… now, evrything’s so no-frills and economical, so impersonal and business-like………. U’d always feel at home in e old library, its' shafts of lights comin in frm e bubble glass walls, e slits in e windows………. Things now are no longer about feeling at home where you are, but about being hassle-free and quick….. efficiency’s e key word now……….. thinking about efficiency brings me to singapore’s committal non-stop attempt at bettering the public transport system…… can’t they see that the public transport system IS one of the best already? I have heard classmates comment on how spectacular and grand changi airport is, and also about e unreliable public transport systems here.,………. Don’t they realize that they can never be the best in everything? Cuz these are such abstract matters that change continually……… it’s like e Guinness book of world records…. It could change over e course of a day……. Will Singapore never be satisfied? This wild mad pursuit of perfection has brought about a catastrophe……. I have no solid ground info yet, but I received a text frm a Singapore friend that e Nicole highway collapsed, and suntec and marina suffered blackouts and e goldenmile complex was shaking...... all due to e unending roadworks in e area…. Why? For e construction of e circle line for e mrt……. We already have countless feeder buses running in any one district alone! For goodness sake! How big is Singapore? How many train lines do we need? First e east-west and north-south lines…… e basics…. Then comes e North-East Line…….. some ppl's lives better...... now the circle line?? What exactly is e circle line?!~ for e past 5 years there hasn’t been a single part of Singapore that hasn’t been undergoing major construction…….. Why do they keep tryin to implement a better, newer project right after they’ve completed one? When we will see a pollution free landscape, unsore to e eye and not littered with huge yellow power vehicles? It’s like a continual attempt to outdo themselves……… is that what e Singapore government is about? At striving to outdo everyone such that even when there is no competition left we are still insistently tryin to outdo ourselves? is that their form of denial? do they fear that someday they'll b so good at what they do that they're unchallenged... what then? it's just this empty feeling isn't it? it's lonely at e top, so why go there? aren't we happy where we are now?
And now they’ve done themselves in…… I dunno e extent of e damage, but it doesn’t sound light to me….. how can e Nicole highway collapse? Which brings me to e point that there hasn’t been a single month gone by when e Nicole highway and e route leading to e Nicole highway from mountbatten road has remain unaltered……. How safe is it driving through narrow lanes created from fragile plastic boulders, alongside ppl on bicycles and pedestrians who jaywalk cuz e pedestrian mall’s being blocked off for e construction? Littered with blind turnings and blind corners where a split second can cost you, or someone else their life? Is this a better transport system? Sure doesn’t seem so.……
It just makes me shudder to think of e Nicole highway collapsing…. I mean, HOW can it collapse? Which part of it? E only collapsible part I can think of is e Benjamin sheares bridge…. And e very thought of that bridge collapsing pains me…. Not because im a patriotic Singaporean or anything, but because it’s a beautiful place, and serves a good purpose and driving along that 200m or so stretch just makes u feel naturally good…. Cuz it’s framed by e city skyscrapers on one side, and e beautiful bay of e river with its restaurants on the other side……… if there’s any sight in Singapore that’s still unaltered, I’d say this is it……… but imagine, a bridge collapsing over waters? That is so freaky….. e closest I ever heard of anything similar to that was e sliproad to e ecp from ophir road being closed cuz it was unstable….. but that didn’t collapse! they closed it off for renovations..... Have we gone so far in our thoughts and been so blind that we fail to see e immediate problems? how can such a thing escape them? how could they have not forseen this tragedy? In our quest for technological brilliance have we missed the more important things in sight? Has Singapore become a soulless place where what’s new is good? And what’s old is bad? Look what’s become of e drama theatre and e national library... The reason y Singapore has no heritage is because they’re obliterating our heritage and creating a soulless merit-inclined society, looking only forward, and never back……. Singapore has lost a large part of its heritage and culture, and that very essence of the 1940’s and our fisherman’s down-to-earth contentment and simplicity can never be regained…. what's all this talk about being thankful to our ancestors and not forgetting our roots? by doing what we are doing, we are actively chucking our roots aside and embracing the new fuss-free, competition-filled trustless nation of nameless individuals in starched suits eating lunch out of styrofoam boxes with 30min lunch breaks......