7.9

I was talking to Matt yesterday and somewhere along our on/off conversation the topic got into the state of toilets in Singapore. He said Singapore rocks, and I said Singapore is probably the only country in the world that regularly needs to have “Cleanest Toilet in the Precinct” just so to encourage toilet cleanliness.

Truth to tell, despite the many gripes we’ve got here about rising inflation, near-complete-absence of social graces, national service obligations, front-line customer service persons from wherever who can’t speak English etc., there is one thing we have it easy here; and that’s a relative absence of natural disasters. Just take a look around us; first the Asian Tsunami, then the Myanmar cyclone, and just a few days ago the Wenchuan earthquake. And even in highly urbanized and modern states like in Perth, there were regular power outages that resulted in blackouts lasting half a day. In Singapore, you can just imagine the kind of hollers that’ll result if the power grid goes down for just 30 minutes (“.. My maid can’t use the vacuum machine now to clean the house! I want to comprain!!!!”).

On the earthquake that measured 7.9 magnitude, a friend sent an email pleading for a donations booth to be setup, and in his email he’d attached a photograph (below) of children who’d been caught in the quake zone frantically being rescued by workers. Heartbreaking stuff. Well, from the email circuit replies shortly thereafter, for whatever reason, that photo apparently didn’t go too well for some.

And that begs the question: I wonder if some of us here in Singapore have gotten too used to the ‘good life’ that we’ve forgotten that elsewhere lives are continually exposed to far larger risks and danger, and they have little of the infrastructure safety net we take for granted here. Maybe it upsets some of our delicate stomachs when we see real destruction that isn’t of the Michael Bay type on-screen. Maybe we just prefer to avert our eyes off disasters and tragedy, and prefer to gawk at traffic accidents and scribble down vehicle numbers to buy the 4D lottery.

Which is too strange, because on the flipside, Singaporeans will readily donate and render material support whenever disasters strike elsewhere in the world. Like how this Singaporean businessman personally donated $2 million. So either we’re conflicted, or just all confused.

Me, I sent an email to my friend saying that the photo was important. It wakes people and makes people aware.