I miss the good old days of green coin phones, all the elbows out of the car windows, old plaza singapura Yaohan, the tikum packets, and heck alot of stuff. Though i may not have seen as much you did, but i realize i was old enough to have seen Singapore made the big leap...so many things/places kena modernize in afew years so fast...when the yesteryears seem so 'forever' back then. :|
KnightofPentacles
· 4 years ago
Mr Miyagi, you certainly know how to tug at the heartstrings. Unfortunately the heart attached to those strings has been since shattered many times over.
With the notable exception of a few human relationships, there is very little left to hold my heart to this land anymore.
Even in the worst of economic downturns, even in the worst of external threats (real or alleged), even in the worst of political situations.. we serfs want to look around and say "this is the house I grew up in and where I peed behind that tree" or "this is the patch of sand where I played gorlee (marbles) and got whacked by the local ah seng" or "this is the hump where I crashed my first BMX bicycle and cut my leg badly and got rushed to the hospital".
For us serfs totally uninterested in lofty theories, this is who we are. Take that away from us (in the name of progress, or whatever) and you take away part of who we are.
People do not give up their lives (literally or figuratively) for 99-year HDB flats, 10-year COE cars or NSS/ERP shares. It is about looking around and thinking this is where I belong and thinking therefore this is where I will bring up my kids in .
The Singapore I know and love is fast becoming an unperson - to steal an idea from 1984.
The SAF recruitment poster says: "From this land, we are made. For this land, we will fight." It rings hollow to my ears. The problem is.. the land from which I was made does not exist anymore. Instead, we have the Fabrication of a Nation, indeed!
"Because every place I hold close to my heart in Singapore is rapidly being torn down, redeveloped and upgraded into glitzy souless tourist attractions." - from Emigration Essay
cour marly
· 4 years ago
My family (along with grandma visiting) actually went to opening day of McD's at Liat Towers. Grandma loved the free pencils they were giving away and she took me and my brother past the pencil guy multiple (multiple!) times to amass a gigantic bunch of pencils. There might still be some in the house.
nat
· 4 years ago
Every Singaporean politician who thinks Singaporeans are apathetic should read blog posts like this one.
The days being described here are a bit before my time (I'm 24), but I can relate to the sentiment. It's hard to feel rooted here, beyond just the vague feeling that I grew up here (of course there's the fact that my family are all here). Buildings that have been around for decades can be torn down in days, and the area can so quickly look like those buildings never existed. Yet buildings that are supposed to be around only for months look so permanent. If you've ever had temporary markets etc while the original premises were being renovated, you'd know what I mean.
Daryl
· 4 years ago
Incidentally, the Liat Towers McDonald's was the busiest McDonald's in the world in the year it opened, IIRC.
Mr Miyagi
· 4 years ago
Yeah, sold a record number of burgers in a day or something like.
Shawn
· 4 years ago
Most of my fondest memories are actually those from my primary school days.
The 1-leg games during recess, hide-and-seek at the playground opposite my school...the ones with those metal bridges and fireman pole.
Playing 'catching' at the multi-storey carpark.
Buying sweeteened coloured drinks from the uncle outside our school and getting stomache.
Going to school through unconventional ways like under the drain, or down from a 'hill' slope.
And more..but they are slowly fading away...
ci'en
· 4 years ago
I like this mr miyagi, this triggers off a lot of nostalgia. remember when going to Swensens at Thompson Yaohan was such a big deal as a kid? those were the days.
Mr Miyagi
· 4 years ago
Swensens Thomson Plaza is still there! Went there with a friend last year, and couldn't stop laughing thinking about how it was when we used to bring dates there because it was the poshest place in the area.
All Comments
With the notable exception of a few human relationships, there is very little left to hold my heart to this land anymore.
Even in the worst of economic downturns, even in the worst of external threats (real or alleged), even in the worst of political situations.. we serfs want to look around and say "this is the house I grew up in and where I peed behind that tree" or "this is the patch of sand where I played gorlee (marbles) and got whacked by the local ah seng" or "this is the hump where I crashed my first BMX bicycle and cut my leg badly and got rushed to the hospital".
For us serfs totally uninterested in lofty theories, this is who we are. Take that away from us (in the name of progress, or whatever) and you take away part of who we are.
People do not give up their lives (literally or figuratively) for 99-year HDB flats, 10-year COE cars or NSS/ERP shares. It is about looking around and thinking this is where I belong and thinking therefore this is where I will bring up my kids in .
The Singapore I know and love is fast becoming an unperson - to steal an idea from 1984.
The SAF recruitment poster says: "From this land, we are made. For this land, we will fight." It rings hollow to my ears. The problem is.. the land from which I was made does not exist anymore. Instead, we have the Fabrication of a Nation, indeed!
"Because every place I hold close to my heart in Singapore is rapidly being torn down, redeveloped and upgraded into glitzy souless tourist attractions." - from Emigration Essay
The days being described here are a bit before my time (I'm 24), but I can relate to the sentiment. It's hard to feel rooted here, beyond just the vague feeling that I grew up here (of course there's the fact that my family are all here). Buildings that have been around for decades can be torn down in days, and the area can so quickly look like those buildings never existed. Yet buildings that are supposed to be around only for months look so permanent. If you've ever had temporary markets etc while the original premises were being renovated, you'd know what I mean.
The 1-leg games during recess, hide-and-seek at the playground opposite my school...the ones with those metal bridges and fireman pole.
Playing 'catching' at the multi-storey carpark.
Buying sweeteened coloured drinks from the uncle outside our school and getting stomache.
Going to school through unconventional ways like under the drain, or down from a 'hill' slope.
And more..but they are slowly fading away...