Whinges of an Alien

Bangsar South -  one of the upcoming and most rapidly developed township on the hill, complete with a new shopping mall, hotels, offices, condominiums and even a few medical centres and clinics within the neighbourhood. Sounds great. Is it really? Once upon a time, this area was called Kampung Kerinchi (Kerinchi Village), which had a good mix of different residential buildings, local shops and food stalls, and a big farmers' market that opened twice a week. Most importantly, residents used to be surrounded by lots of greenery but not short of necessary modern conveniences. BUT, ever since the renaming of the area from the not-very-cool-sounding one to Bangsar South several years ago, there hasn't been a pause in development. This of course, involved the sacrifice of many many trees and bushes and destroying the landscape with the leveling of the hilly lands.    We can foresee what the residents downhill would be experiencing on stormy days: mud floodi...

Receipts. One of the most annoying and pointless yet unavoidable things in life. It is necessary as evidence that you did not steal something from a shop, for making claims when you return the goods, as proof that you've been overcharged, etc. But most of the time you'll find that you have more receipts in your wallet than money. As if it is not bad enough, we've just got ourselves what's probably the longest receipt in the world, from a book shop in Kuala Lumpur. We only bought 2 books but the total length of the receipt is 37.4cm. What made it this long is the 2 paragraphs of very meaningless text (some "receipt stories" thingie) printed on the end of the receipt, taking up more than half the length of the paper. Did it serve any purpose? We have no idea. But we're sure that halfway trying to read the 2 paragraphs, we nearly fell asleep. While some of us are trying to reduce wastage and stuff going to landfill, there are those who try every possible way ...

I love Christmas, but I have much reservation about the notion that, to celebrate Christmas means that you will have to buy something for someone, and subordinate completely to commodity without much thought. Every time I feel like buying something for my friends, I tend to think that I might be adding to: Their clutter - excessive wrapper and trimmings on top of gifts that my friends may have no idea what to do with. Do they throw them away? I may feel unappreciated. Do they reuse or recycle them? That may be too much work for them. They may just throw the wrapping paper away, but it’s still an unnecessary contribution to the landfill. Their chores - things like flowers, nice. But they would have to get the water changed everyday, and I will worry about what they would do when the flowers are dead. I normally bury them, but I can’t possibly expect all of my friends to do that too. Their extreme hassle and guilt as they may have no idea what to say to me - if they totally do not like w...

One crazy woman was spotted in Ikea restaurant this evening, whilst taking her tray to the tray trolley after her dinner, picked up several packets of unused salt and pepper from the table next to hers, and placed them back where they came from. These individually packed salt and pepper, was believed to be left behind by a very trendy looking couple, who obviously have the right to take whatever amount of salt and pepper they wish even though it is much more than what they needed and can consume. Afterall, it is free, and the cost has probably been worked into the price of the food; so what's wrong with that? And what damage would ditching a few packets of salt and pepper possibly do? The damage is astronomical. And that crazy woman was me.

Out of desperation, I had to join the Sunday crowd at Ikea for my dinner. Such a trendy place to hang out for families from a highly developed country, to show off that the wives do not have to do the cooking at home because they can afford to eat out. After much struggle, I finally managed to snatch an empty seat at a table shared with a family. They had a stack of serviettes (paper napkins) on the table. When I said stack, I really meant stack. A 1-inch thick stack! How can a family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers need so many of that? It is such a common scene that these humans will take much more than they should, when they can, even when they have absolutely no need for it. "Well, it's free", someone will tell you that. It is also one of the many notions of "hygiene" in Singapore, well, also in many other places where humans reside. Since the extinct of handkerchief (some may not even know what it is or how to spell it anymore), the use of paper napkins is on th...

The bus ride back to my little room rented from a human family takes about 35 minutes every evening, and passes by many HDB flats (The Singapore government built flats, HDB stands for Housing and Development Board) in Chinese housing area including the China Town. Since mid August, I have been noticing a lot of burning of candles, prayer paper that represents "hell money", joss sticks, and paper replicas of luxury items in these areas. There are also some heavily decorated stages and tents set up in various areas, completed with altars and amazingly, karaokes! It looks like something really big is going on. Aahhhhh... it's one of the most important Chinese festivals in Singapore: The Hungry Ghost Festival! The festival which the Chinese believe that the hell gate would open and free all underworld souls to wander amongst the livings' world. All that burnings are the humans' offerings to feed these hungry and perhaps greedy ghosts, so that they shall not disturb or...

To my biggest surprise, when I approached the check-out counter in a supermarket and the cashier asked me, "would you need a bag?" It is definitely not a norm for that to happen in Singapore! Even when some major supermarkets do sell reusable cloth bags, they have never once asked me if I prefer to purchase one of them! And to actually ask me if I need a bag? In your dreams! Oh but that is finally happening now, so it's God's gift! Of course my answer is "no, I don't need a bag, thank you" - with a big smile, which they don't usually get when they tried to shove me plastic bags. Then when the next customer said he would like a bag, there was a 10-cent extra charge to his purchase (he then quickly changed his mind ahahaha). Then I noticed a sticker on the cashier counter top, advertising about some "Bring Your Own Bag Day" campaign. So I see... Singapore is FINALLY "doing something" like a few other countries. Of course, for a star...

It is the last day of earth year – 2006. Earthlings’ are preparing to welcome 2007, the new year ahead. Well, let’s see what’s new. Millions of people are crowding around ‘happening’ places all over the world, watching the second hand on big giant clock ticks, and do count down. Sadly, what these earthlings do not know at this instance is, that they really are counting down to the end of their planet, sooner than later. Fireworks! Yay! We had it last year, and the year before last, and the year before the year before last… but hey, we are having it like we’ve never had before! It’s bigger, more colourful, and surely, we are burning more of it. Let’s double… no, triple the amount. This way, even our neighbouring countries can see us, and be very jealous of us. And every country may wish to do the same. What’s the contribution of fireworks to mankind again? Why can’t they have a peaceful New Year celebration, and pray for more surviving years for the planet? Party time. It’s only trendy ...