Both sides now -
I've looked at clouds from both sides nowFrom up and down, and still somehow
It's clouds' illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
Which are the illusions, and what is reality? Is the dichotomy meaningful -
I was at The Sail@Marina Bay today looking at the units and the facilities.
It is surrounded by construction sites. The sound of machines at work is deafening. It completely dwarfs the noise from the MRT line next to our house.
I had a lot of questions. I will not afford an apartment there in the near future, but I was intrigued by the development I saw around it. Looking down from the club house, those construction sites resemble a SimCity landscape when your city has abundant resources and a booming population.
The skyline changes every year I come back; the flyer is already turning, the hotels in the IR are already growing, and there are a couple of other office and residential buildings starting to grow around that area as well. It will be F1 next month; next year when I come back both IRs are going to be ready, and in 2010 the youth Olympics will be here.
The Circle Line will be done soon, with stations at Fusionopolis (another new thing that is going to be ready) and NUH to be opened 2010/2011. T3 had started its operations for quite some time; I was pretty amazed at the shopping mall at the basement. No idea how the Changi experience is like at T3 because I did not fly SQ or UA this time, but even T1, the terminal which I am the most familiar with, is also going to be revamped.
Singapore's development is amazing. Outwardly the country is leaping forward; there seems to be a lot of potential, hope and opportunities everywhere. All these are indeed exciting. I am pretty impressed by SICS's GDM programme as well; the planning and the vision is brilliantly done but whether or not the operation concept will work well here remains something that I need to closely monitor.
All these things that I see this time - will have to work out for us. If they don't, it would be difficult to redefine ourselves after that. We are basically filling niches that other people in our region have not filled yet; this is basically what sustains both the IRs and the GDM programme. They will work - I will try to contribute to make sure it works.
There is another set of things that I saw today - the backward side of things. The side of things that remained constantly backward despite the rapid developments that are happening outside.
Mum had been working for KWSH for some years and I have never seen her at work before. So I went there to see what she usually does for work...
I wouldn't use the word 'appalling' to describe what I saw, but I was seriously pretty surprised at how 'basic' the level of care was for the elders who live there.
Mum says that a lot of new people who joined their volunteering team decided to quit after a while because they cannot bear to see the physical conditions of the people living there. I am not too much affected by that, because well it is our job to make them feel better - but well, as a hospice/hospital, the living conditions should be better than an army bunk? But in fact I would think my bunk in the army is better. At least there is a fridge and a PS2 console.
If not for these volunteers who bring a bit more life to the wards, that place is just a forgotten corner of our country. Not in a good sense as in those forgotten Kampongs with happy villagers but physically handicapped elders eating from metal trays and sleeping on soiled bedsheets.
Luckily there are still people who cared, because I really doubt who would actually care about these people in a society like ours except these volunteers. I do not see any sense of duty, let alone passion, in the supposedly trained staff who works there full-time. I don't suppose the hospital will be allocated any high quality staff because seriously, if you take away sentiments, it is not worth the investment. I know how to do this kind cost-benefit analysis as well...
How do we reconcile these two extremes - the leading edge of our high-speed development and the forgotten corners? We can let the forgotten corners to keep being forgotten, and provide them with the minimum for sustainability because that isn't going to matter too much to the leading edge. There isn't anything they can complain about anyway - this seems like our strategy.
Though would it be better if some of us can have a stronger sense of social responsibility - just like the group of volunteers - and bring some joy and fruits of our country's development to these forgotten corners?
We want to be a place where everyone can call home. This idea of 'everyone' does and should include everyone that lives here; no one should be forgotten, no one should be deemed worthless of attention. They might not have any economic value but, they once have; and they serve to remind people like us - we are not being put in this world to only take, but most importantly, to give and to serve.
Labels: Life
