We are wrapping up!
We are in our final lap to the completion of the project and come March 24, 2009, we will be unveiling it at http://reclaimland.sg, so check it out nearer the date! Also, bits of the project may end up somewhere else, but we are crossing our fingers on that one.
Finally, thought I leave you what local think-tank, Institute of Policy Studies, chief thinks how space affects Singaporeans.
“Every developed city in the world has self-centered people… Here in Singapore this self-centredness has become more acute because we are living in a very small space. There is this feeling that if I don’t get things my way, I am not going to be as successful and as important.”
Mr Ong Keng Yong
The Straits Times, Feb 11, 2009
Lighting up the sky
A long exposure reveals the colourful streaks made by remote controlled kites above a field near Clarke Quay. Members of Go Fly Kite (GFK), or otherwise known as “The Night Flyers” began playing on the field due to proximity reasons – the only shop that supplies the kites and accessories is located in Riverside Point.
Step Up 2
Line dancing hobbyists gather at the concourse of UE Square along River Valley Road every Saturday to indulge in their favourite recreation. They dance from 6:00pm till 10:00pm, taking breaks whenever they like, while the music continues playing for four straight hours. Philip, coordinator for the weekly sessions, says the smooth marbled surface provides a suitable dance floor for line dancers.
Fair weather sports
Church-goers enjoy a game of Sunday football outside St. Andrew’s Cathedral. They play every week from 4-7 p.m. in an open field bordered by the city’s busy traffic.
Sepak Tak-roar
At an open field near Kallang Stadium, construction workers take a break from work to play Sepak Takraw. The temporary court is made from plastic poles and tapes.
Notice-able
Guerilla advertisers paste notices over a notice board along a walkway at Jurong East MRT station. Most of the notices were for rental opportunities targetting foreign workers.
Whose city is it anyway?
Many of us take this city for granted, we travel from point to point, in and out — the issue for us it seem is not about if we can but if we want to. For us, the public transport is convenient, we have the money to gain access to most places and we fit in easily (i.e. no funny stares from others).
Not my mother or my aunts it seems. They stick to direct bus routes, enduring longer journeys because the drill of transfers and changing is just too confusing. They feel out of place at cosmopolitan shopping malls. The times are bad so they rather avoid paying so much to travel to the city centre nor pay $5 for a plate of char kway tiao. They get lost in the city centre that so many of us travel with ease and efficiency.
While you and I easily straddle and traverse Singapore’s distinct divided cityscape of the heartland HDB and the cosmopolitian city centre daily, let us not forget that there are those around us who are lost in their very own city just because it was not built for them.
re·claim (verb): to claim the return or restoration of, as a right, possession. 