Singapore's blueprint is to grow at an insane pace.
Singapore’s blueprint is to develop at an insane pace. I grew up along Depot Road, with nearby Bukit Merah Town centre the hub of getting foodstuff and groceries from the nearby NTUC.
Going back to it recently I felt lost. The old HDB blocks along Depot Road, demolished. Bukit Merah Town centre and interchange also upgrade until I cannot recognise. There’s nothing I recognise about the place anymore, it might as well be some town, but not the Bukit Merah I know.
This is how it is with Singapore.
Now no point for me going to Orchard Road. Nothing to do there. Prices for everything are too high. Only expatriates and the upper class can hang out there. Even if I had the money, everything’s commercialised and artificial and overly made shiny and fake. Now it’s about all that glitters when it comes to Orchard Road.
Whatever we can feel ‘connected’ to is quickly demolished. Rarely do we come across something that we can re-connect. Even trees that took over 40 years old to mature are cut down in an instant to make way for another HDB project just opposite Clementi Mall. Even Nature is not spared.
We are a country that is fast losing its sense of self. Even our history is just another propaganda tool, instead of what it should be used for i.e. to ground ourselves.
Without a proper cultural grounding, anything can blow us over as a wind can overturn a tree with weak roots. A country collapses when the people no longer believe in it.
And this government is instrumental in letting that happen by selling this country’s soul for profit maximising. This is the Hard Truth that should be talked about.
Anonymous