7/31/2013

Before the state of paralysis, STOP

At the rate we are building more flats and buildings across the island, when every little nook and corner will be scraped so that something can be built on it, it is frightening. We are going to run out of space for buildings if we go on clearing and building. We are going to run out of space for roads and transportation. We are going to be jammed and paralysed if we don’t stop pumping more people into this small piece of rock. We are encroaching into nature, robbing every inch of land available for this thing called economic growth.

Stop while we still can. Stop while we still have the time to ponder and to save our little land from further exploitation and conversion into concrete and humanly made objects.

If we need productivity and economic growth, it must be through other means, through science and technology, through creativity and inventions, definitely not through adding more people or using up more of whatever land that is left.

While the rest of the world is crying to save Gaia, we need to cry to save Singapore before it is plundered to a state of paralysis through a state of over building and over population. Stop before the state of mortis rigor sets in. It must not be allowed to, we must not go that way. Stop while we still can.

What is the point of building and building and to trade our precious land for cash? What is the point of stuffing this island with more and more people? Are we insane? Or who is insane?

Our transportation is going to be a gridlock with too many vehicles and too few roads to drive. Increasing and improving public transportation are not the solutions if we don’t stop the flow of more people into the island. Keep raising COE and ERP charges, are they really the solutions? We are painting ourselves into a tight corner and no where to move.

What is economic growth when our lifestyle is being constraint by rising cost and diminishing space? There is no need to turn the island into a Peking duck, to be stuffed to the fullest.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

RB, I am afraid only 40% of sinkies agreed with u including me. The other 60% of the sinkies vision is aligned with the power to be. Bo bian mah. Tio Bo?

Kpkb here everyday also no use lar other than letting off some steam. Knn what to do.

Anonymous said...

UNCLE CHUA

U are 100% right!

We must not trade happiness of the citizens for higher GDP....

Many are struggling and crying.....pls hear them .....

oldhorse42 said...

Well the Govt is still selling land for residential sites and the developers are still lapping them up. The latest EC site at Yuan Ching Road at Jurong West fetch record price. The Govt is still importing about 100,000 people into the already crowded place which hardly has standing room only.
BTW RB, you are behind time, possibly still in colonial times. Peking Duck is now known as Beijing Duck!

agongkia said...

Yes,let me return to my old kampong in Somapah Road which they have not develop after resettling me for nearly 30 years.
Still got hope.I am willing to return my pigeon hole in exchange for my suateng huts.No need power supply.My Ah Kong taught me on the use of kerosine lamp and take free water from wells when I was a boy.Fish ..vege.. all free.Can even bury my own body there.No burden to the State.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

The problems the govt is creating for the present and future generation is over exploitation of our limited land and filling it up with concrete structures and people.

It is very stressful on nature and the human beans living in such compact space. Good? Quality living? For who?

Anonymous said...

RB, u may feel it but if one lives in good class bungalow, one can not feel it. So not everyone in sinkie land has the same experience mah

Anonymous said...

Akongkia!
I don't know you from Somapah!! I was from Padang Tebakar village. Shiok lah all those places. Somapah, Koh Sek Lim Road, Kampong Ayer Gemuroh, Mata Ikan, Bedok Corner, Gulega Road, Siak Kuan Road, Jalan Tiga Ratus, Beting Kusa, Telok Paku, Gulega, all I used to roam. A few times I saw David Marshal at his beach home. Shiok lah that area. Now gone. Only in my dreams. My memories. I was resettled in the late 1977 to Bedok. I still remember the government officials counting my coconut trees for compensation. There was still a few houses in Somapah Village in '86, '87, and the Somapah bus end point stopped functioning by that time.

Anonymous said...

Hey, good day to my Somapah Alumni here.
Never know got so many victims at My Singapore News Blogsite including me.

@Agongkia,
Are You sure after been chased out of Somapah for 30 years, the Place is not developed?
Wtf is happening?
Knn!

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I disagree. Don't stop. You need to build more. Tear down the old -- like Holland V, and build new, awesome and HIGH.

Holland V is low rise, and it is high time to get with it and use the scarce land more effectively. Holland V Shopping Complex is 4 floors, The Windmill is 3 floors. The rest are at most only 2 floors.

As Singapore's population increases (complain all you want, and good luck to you -- I support 9-15 million), Holland V -- a very popular hangout -- is going to have to change to meet the times. Holland V needs a serius face lift. Another place is Dempsey Road -- the "neighbour" to Holland V, also a hip place to hangout. Both these places need serious facelifts and INCREASED CAPACITY to handle the increasing number of "cool people" in Singapore.

Building has no choice but to INCREASE to meet the demand of new arrivals. The place is going to grow, whether you lie it or not. I am going to keep encouraging and helping people to re-locate to Singapore. I want the place crowded and awesome.

Tough shit if you don't like it ;-)

So yeah, build, build and build. Tear down the old and useless and build grand and high. and never close those borders!

agongkia said...

anon 1104/1231
I still remember one Padang Terbakar old lady,always in black,quite pitiful ,of unsound mind who will shout "li X X tai see larng ah" for no reason when I was a little boy. She use to fetch her granddaughter from Red Swastika School.Quite pitiful.

You Mata Ikan Boy? Nice meeting you guys here.Go and get to know farmer patriot who is said to bee a Koh Sek Lim boy.

Anonymous said...

@Agongkia.
How come they chased You, your family and maybe for 30 years and did not use the land?
Was it because there were many unsold flats at Bedok Reservoir and Tampines? Recall that there were many blocks that became 'haunted' and few were willing to be allocated or bought those flats.
It was said then that drug addicts and those looking for a place to have trysts were making those unsold blocks their favorite haunts.
Anyway, it is quite fair to resettle squattters 5 or maximun 10 years if there is plan to develop the land. But 30 years is simply nonsensical. The Planners should have been sacked.

Anonymous said...

and maybe NEIGHBOURS.
neighbours missed in my above comment.

Apology!

agongkia said...

anon7.07
Many elderly pass away after being put in pigeon hole because they are being use to bare footed and not use to the change of environment.
My Ah Ma passed away immediately within 3 years.If only they resettle us 25 years later,my destiny will be different.
Pls dun let others think Somapah boys are suakoo and not understanding on the need to give way for development lah.Near airport how to built flat.Just hope that they dun make use of the land to built golf club for the rich to enjoy.Me enjoy going back for a jog but they even close the once built car park.Very Keksim.See U at other post.