Clear Days Ahead?

I am sitting next to the swimming pool as my son runs off for his swimming lesson and my daughter plays at the side of the pool. There is a lovely breeze and the air seems clear for the first time in many days. It feels like a heavy shroud has been lifted and everyone is outdoors to make the most of it. A group of residence are doing their tai-chi to the tune of Love in the First Degree even! And I have never been happier sitting in the sun.

Just two days ago the family was trapped indoors in what looked like post-apocalyptic Singapore. To kill time I was trying to blog about it. The 3 hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) at that time was 125, an Unhealthy range and climbing as the hours past. The smog was stinging the eyes and my nose tingled from the allergen. From my living room window the visibility was very poor, roads and public areas were deserted. The Straits Times reported that the haze could be with us until November partly due to the dry spell brought about by El Nino. The thought was so distressing I couldn't get myself to finish the blogpost. I clicked Delete.

On most days everything in Singapore seems to tick along to our Majulah precision. A global city with fabulous skyline, world class recreation facilities, and an exciting culinary scene. We are a services hub and innovation meeting point predicated on stability, efficiency, high quality of life and inclusiveness. These intangibles are a result of strategic planning which in itself is an intangible. Without natural resources and a sufficient land mass, we are as vulnerable as egg shells. Without strategic thinkers our fate as a nation is like shifting sand or this oppressive haze - good one day and disastrous on another.

The winds of change just slightly up north of our city state is a stark reminder that progress and credibility built over half a century can be suddenly shrouded in hazardous haze. A man who counts himself beyond the law is inciting racial hatred to shield himself from an impending downfall. The red t-shirt Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu (United Citizens Rally) were clearly suffering from confused identity when they went out on the streets on Malaysia Day freely chanting racist slurs. They would have seemed less cowardice had they been more upfront in calling themselves Himpunan Rakyat Satu Kaum Sahaja. Nazism would have been quite fitting as well. There is a rampage on its currency and the country's rating. Yet typical of most crazed regime, the leadership has responded with incoherent rhetoric. The free falling currency is good for exports it seems.

The annual haze quagmire is a more direct evidence of our vulnerability. Outright burning coupled with natural forest fires during the dry season wrecks havoc in the region. Our plea for action and offer to help drew fury and indignation amongst some senior government officials who lost sight of the fact that the local inhabitants are asphyxiating in a toxic soup with the PSI hitting 1900. Diplomacy and regional cooperation is forgotten when it matters most, replaced with stubborn refusal to acknowledge the real problem. 

The sub-100 PSI today seems to be holding up to my surprise. I am even cautiously optimistic that this could mark the end of the haze season. But somewhere in my mind I know that this is probably only a temporary change in the wind directions and we are not entirely out of the woods just yet. This to me is a constant reminder of the vulnerabilities we face. We need to continuously sustain our resilience as a single people, never falling for sweet naming euphemisms to hide possible fractures in our society. We must call out issues where they exist and work single-mindedly to resolve them before they become a chasm in our society.