The morning newspapers’ headlines screamed what many people already knew last night: that the current smog, exported from our good neighbors who’re clearing land through fire and carnage across the sea, has finally hit hazardous levels here. Granted, our island here has all along been shielded from some of the usual natural calamities that plague the other parts of the world, e.g. tsunamis, earthquakes, typhoons and tornadoes, but to counter-balance that, we have dengue fever and our yearly haze.
Enough already is being said online and in social media about whether our government is doing enough by way of diplomacy. And if social media is anything to go by, many people seem to be coping by making jokes about the P-SI or pee-sai (for our ang mo friend, that means nose sh*t) and the haze.
We’ve been coping as well as possible too. I’m well-protected at work with the air-conditioning units working overtime now to filter out as much smog as they can, though I’ve taken to holding my breadth if I have to cross from one block to the other. Ling and Hannah have been hiding out at shopping malls during the daytime.
The tricky thing is the evening time, and that we’ve already done furniture re-arrangements to prepare for our baby boy’s arrival – basically Hannah has given up her room and moved into our room. Even with windows closed, there’s still the obvious smell of burnt wood lingering in the air at home, and our hung-dry laundry has not been spared too.
So yesterday evening, we decided to try a little experiment – relocate all our home activities to the master bedroom. Our room’s big enough for us to do a lot with it. Aside from our bed, Hannah’s bed is in it now too, alongside her children’s table that we’ve doubled up for dinner and work usage. It’s a fun arrangement, and reminds me of the very adept way families in very small apartments have to navigate among themselves when one needs to move around.
And oh yes; Hannah has added asking for heavy rain to wash away the haze to her list of prayer items each night.=)
I’m curious, but assume for the sake of argument all fires responsible for the haze ceased immediately: how long would it take for the haze and associated dangers to filtrate out of Singapore?
Hard to say, bud. Let’s say if all the fires were put out today, I imagine the resulting smoke from smoldering ash will still create smog. And the smog takes maybe half a day to reach Singapore on moderate winds. And right now, everything in the house smells of burnt wood. Best case, still maybe a couple of days.=(
Most of the birds in the island has probably flown off this island to somewhere cleaner. I hardly see or hear birds these days. Even my dog prefers the air con study room when the haze is bad. Today, the air is better so she’s been asking to be let out of the room. I use the dryer for my clothes on days where weather conditions are less than perfect.
I hope it clears soon, but definitely before Ling goes into labor!
That’s my prayer, Matt.!
Hi CY, thanks for your article, very insightful.
Would you mind if I asked where you got a picture of that newspaper article and if you have a higher resolution of it available?
If you do would you mind emailing it to me?
Hi Sarah; thanks for the visitation to our blog. No I don’t have a larger version of that front page liner. The material belongs to our national newspaper anyway, so it wasn’t right for me to have posted it up as well. The news then was so significant in our history when the haze reached unprecedented levels here!