Haze Breakthrough Unlikely

Haze: Breakthrough in map sharing efforts with Indonesia unlikely - Today Online

They Don't Build Them Like That Anymore

I had momentarily forgotten that Singapore once had a thriving car industry but then I recalled the Old Ford Factory; today better known as the place of the British surrender to the Japanese.  The pre-war 1941 Ford Mercury Club Convertible featured in this video was built in Bukit Timah in 1941, shortly before the Japanese invasion.


It has had a chequered life surviving the Japanese Occupation, life in Batavia (Jakarta) with the Dutch, and even further afield before arriving back Singapore. And, at the age of 72, it is still drivable.
The car was taking part in the Motoring Heritage Day staged besides the even more historic (and thankfully retained) former Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.  Good to see the National Heritage Board busily engaged in such activities.

Google's Singapore Haze Map

This map map from Google shows Singapore and Malaysia air quality in near real-time.  The original site can be found here.

Introducing The Hello Haze Doll

Consumers line up to get their paws on a Hello Kitty character toy in a skeleton outfit. Source: AFP-JIJI

I am always slightly bemused by the Singaporean passion for the latest craze.  Whether it be the latest mobile device or a range of doughnuts, people will queue for hours just get their hands on the merchandise.

So it is now with a faceless stuffed toy taking their fancy.  I am referring to the ubiquitous and asexual Hello Kitty stuffed toy which McDonalds is selling along with its flaccid burgers.  Apparently these dolls are themed around fairy tales; so even the creative context of the toys comes from other sources.  An excellent example of marketing hype over substance.

Reuters reports that is a black Hello Kitty with a white skeleton and pink bow, based on a German tale called the "Singing Bone" that everyone one in line is fighting over.  Hundreds lined up for the midnight launch and before stocks ran out the police were called in to maintain law and order.

Not everyone succeeded in their quest to get their hands on the hello Kitty toy. McDonald's Facebook page recorded their frustrations.  One grandfather had hoped to get one for his young granddaughter but failed to do so.

"I am one unhappy grandfather! I had deliberately taken public transport in the haze to buy the 'Ugly Duckling'," he wrote, referring to hazardous levels of smog from Indonesian forest fires that recently wreathed Singapore before scattering.

"I tried 3 outlets without success."

While this speaks volumes of the devotion of a grandparent, why anyone would risk permanent lung damage for the sake of a plush toy  is beyond me.

Surely Singaporean toy manufacturers can come up with a local competitor that is more appropriate? I have in mind the 'Hello Haze Doll" based on Indonesian fairy tales of regional cooperation.

Just think of the toy accessories: the miniature face mask, the plastic portable respirator, a small phrase book of bahasa Indonesia excuses -  the list of possibilities is endless.

Maybe readers can suggest the names for these dolls?  Let me start the ball rolling.

First off the assembly line would be the "Wheezing Wilma" doll, a consumptive toy with a mechanical mechanism that emits a repetitive coughing sound.

Send me your ideas for this unique range of plush toys - I think we are on to a winner!

The Haze Poem

The Haze Poem

I amazed at the haze
and the ignorant bliss
of farmers who burn
as if nothings amiss

As I stand in the mall
looking out at the smog
there's just me and my mask
and a passing stray dog

Think I'll invent a huge solar powered fan
Sumatran focus in mind
Send it back if we can
Taste your own medicine
is my cunning plan

Roger Smith, 2013

• Hazed and confused

Hazy Images & Leaf Masks

These images were sent to me by a friend in Singapore.  His office is in a heritage building with windows that are not airtight, so the space is trapping the effects of the current haze pollution.

Photo Credit: Professor Graeme Britton

On Friday June 21st, the PSI reading reached 401 which is  life threatening

Sometimes adversity brings out the best in people.  Twitter has been trending #mustbethehaze, with some original tweets (should that be excuses?)

And a tweeter with the nom de plume @TakeMyHandNFly posted this image, taken from the local Singapore news. I think it shows great innovation.

A new style in anti-haze mask!  Looks like a strip of banana leaf (?) and I'm not sure of its effectiveness

Related articles

• Haze in Singapore...

Polar Blasts and Hazy Recollections

Shoppers cover their mouths while out along Orchard Road, in Singapore.
Photo: Mark Cheong / The Straits Times

It's six in the morning and as I write a polar southerly is rattling the windows with hail and rain announcing the dawn.  The only thing in favour of this climatic reality is that the air is fresh; too fresh for the farmers in New Zealand's South island who are waist deep in snow trying to protect their livestock.

What a contrast with the choking stillness of the Indonesian haze that is enveloping Singapore in a caustic blanket.

I remember clearly my first experience of this  haze and wrote about it back in 2007 and in subsequent posts.  The thing that angered me then and angers me still, is the total disregard Indonesia has for its neighbours when it come to air pollution of this sort.

Singapore's NEA Regional Haze Map

Currently the Haze being experienced by my Singaporean friends is at record levels - PSI 250 at 11 pm last night which virtually guarantees respiratory problems for anyone who inhales it. Early in the day, at 1 pm, it had reached a record-high level of 371, beating the previous 1997 record of 226.

Air becomes "hazardous" when the PSI breaches 300 but believe me as one who has experienced it, it is very unpleasant to live and work in at much lower levels.

The Strait's Times reports that a senior Indonesian minister has hit out at Singapore on the haze, saying: "Singapore shouldn't be like children, in such a tizzy."  I note that this same Minister, one Agung Laksono,  is pictured in his air-conditioned office far away from any pollution (if you discount Jakarta's traffic).

Singapore's  Ministry of Health (MOH) having been doing what they can, closing schools and issuing N95 face masks and urging the population not to stockpile so there are enough to go around.

Out of the mouths of babes
A seven year old American child who is visiting her grandparents in Singapore is so upset that she cannot go outside to play that she wrote to the US President Barack Obama, asking him to tell his "good friend the President of Indonesia to stop burning the forest".

Sumatra Hotspots that generate the haze - Meteorological Service Singapore

What is particularly galling about this is that Indonesia does virtually nothing to curb this annual problem, despite taking money from the Singaporean government in the past to alleviate the situation and educate their farmers and those illegally clearing the land for oil palm plantations, using fire.

There is little the Singapore population and its government can do if its larger neighbour continues to behave in such a cavalier fashion. It is a small comfort to know that there is now a special subsidy scheme in place for Singaporeans who are suffering from respiratory problems or conjunctivitis because of the haze.

They can see their GP and only pay $10 with the Ministry of Health picking up the the rest of the bill. Meanwhile flight sin and out of Changi are disrupted, constructions sites and school closed down and even McDonalds has suspended its fast food delivery service.

My suggestion, stop sending money to Indonesia from support schemes that are clearly failing. Instead tally up the total cost of this economic impact due to the Sumatran haze and send the bill to the Indonesia through a world court.  See if that prompts their cooperation.

Stop Press: Haze PSI hits 401 at mnidday today!

Related articles

• Indonesia Says Singapore 'Behaving Like a Child' Over Haze
• Singapore PM Says Haze from Indonesia Fires May Last for Weeks
• Indonesian Minister's Arrogance on Display

Flying High

I don't know about you, but I always like to think that the person piloting the aircraft I am travelling in is in full control or his or her senses. Snorting cocaine in the cockpit would not fill me with confidence about the chances of reaching my destination.

So it is somewhat alarming to read today that a third Indonesian pilot has been prosecuted for ingesting crystal methamphetamine. Putting the 'P' into pilot is a worrying state of affairs, in a country not renowned for its aviation safety record.

The airline in question is Lion Air whose motto just happens to be "We make you fly", although when they coined it, they would not have anticipated their pilots taking this slogan quite so literally, as is the case here.

Media reports that a month earlier, another Lion Air pilot had been arrested with an undisclosed amount of crystal meth in a karaoke bar in South Sulawesi, while two Lion Air co-pilots were arrested for possession of crystal meth and ecstasy last September.

In Indonesia the scourge that is crystal meth is known as "shabu-shabu".  Perhaps given the state of the airline industry there it should be known as "shabby, shabby".

Such was the state of civil aviation in the country that in 2007 when we were based in Singapore all of its airlines were banned by the European Union authorities and, as I worked for the British Council at the time, we were forbidden to use them.

Since then the ban has been gradually lifted but there are still a number of smaller operations that are clearly 'cowboy' outfits. One could always use alternative transport such as ferries but these tend to sink due to overcrowding.

Related articles

• Indonesian Pilot Arrested for Alleged Drug Use (abcnews.go.com)
• Steering issue hits Singapore-bound Qantas A380

Death in the Key of D

Mozart

Today is a rare respite to the recent winter dampness and I am sitting at the keyboard with Mozart's Symphony No. 5: Allegro con brio playing in the background. Now there was a guy who knew how to turn out a tune or two.

The l'enfant terrible would have had a hard time in Singapore with his non-conformist attitude and all-consuming focus on his own being.

Somehow I can't see him playing a leading role in any national courtesy campaign either.

A touch of Mozart is also a reassurance that not all the world is balmy, countering today's revelation that an organic farmer from Norway has killed 80 people with a bomb in parliament and a later shooting rampage at a youth camp. A diet of organic vegetables no doubt contributing to his insanity.

I doubt if we will ever know what drove Anders Behring Breivik to commit this act but it does remind one that even in a supposedly peaceful society such atrocities can occur.

No wonder Singapore keeps reminding its citizens that it too is an iconic target for acts of terror.  In the past fortnight 11 suspects have been arrested in Indonesia as they planned to attack the Singapore embassy in Jakarta.

As to Mozart,he could have avoided a premature death if he had spent more time basking in the sun and thereby absorbing Vitamin D, recent research suggests.

"Mozart did much of his composing at night, so would have slept during much of the day. At the latitude of Vienna, 48 degrees N, it is impossible to make vitamin D from solar ultraviolet-B irradiance for about 6 months of the year," the authors write. "Mozart died on December 5, 1791, two to three months into the vitamin D winter."

Given the amount of sun in Singapore perhaps he should have relocated to the island republic. At the very least he should not have come to Auckland in the middle of a New Zealand winter.

Related articles

• Mozart Probably Died Young From Not Getting Enough Sun (businessinsider.com)
• Norwegian media name bombing, shooting suspect (cbsnews.com)

Systemic Failures

We have been experiencing very strong winds these past few days, or to put it more precisely, equinoxal gales.

As a result of these events our newly installed clothesline has developed the unpleasant habit of lifting like a jet foil, disengaging its support arm and lowering itself against the fence.  Ours is not called the Supafold for nothing!

While this is technically not supposed to be able to happen it has done so nevertheless, the last time coming down on my wife's shoulder and leaving quite a graze.

The Hills clothesline has been the dominant brand in New Zealand for many years but in recent times the solid steel has been replaced by a much lighter weight of metal and there has also been a significant increase in the amount of plastic used.  This means that the frames are no longer rigid and flex alarmingly.

It doesn't help that these lines are no longer manufactured in Australia as, with most products nowadays, they bear a stamp "made in China".

Today the clothesline installer paid us a visit, the obligatory half an hour late as all New Zealand tradesmen seem to be.  

He was clearly skeptical that the wind would actually blow a clothesline down but after we had introduced to our neighbour whose wife had been cracked on the head in a similar rig malfunction, he got the message.

We shall be replacing our retractable support arms with the fixed variety.

During the course of our conversation it transpired that the installer had lived in Bali for several years before returning to New Zealand.  The topic of Indonesia inevitably led to comments on the rife corruption in that country.

I was also reminded how Singapore is experiencing yet another serious cloud of haze pollution from Sumatra, as bad as that which we endured in 2006.

Despite all of the previous promises by the Indonesian government, expensive dinners and friendly ASEAN handshakes the reality is that Indonesia goes its own sweet way, burning off land whenever it feels like it.

Neignbourly considerations do not enter into the Indonesian equation and money given by Singapore in the past to monitor haze and educate farmers has made little or no difference.  I would suggest that the majority of farmers probably never even saw a dollar of the aid money.

Related articles

• Sumatra fires cause Singapore haze (bbc.co.uk)
• Health warning over Sumatra fires (bbc.co.uk)
• Singapore presses Indonesia to act on forest fires (newsinfo.inquirer.net)

Airport Violations

Changi. Image by crawl_ray via Flickr

I am not a huge fan of travel statistics but a story in this week's Jakarta Post made for interesting reading.

Unlike Changi airport, Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International is a somewhat jaded cluster of buildings.

While it would be difficult to find an orchid out of place in Singapore, Indonesia's equivalent recorded a staggering 19,391 violations of public order in 2009.

Amongst them:

7,829 street vendors
407 illegal porters
1,392 shoe polishers
1,663 ticket scalpers
1,177 drivers of cars that had their wheels clamped
6,169 illegal taxis
(and the statistic I like best) 227 Scavengers

The authorities also confiscated 11 stoves, 15 mobile phone vouchers, 9 counterfeit banknotes and 17 motorcycles.

A Most Beautiful Home?

"Let’s make our world the most beautiful home
Where everyone can live and breathe and they can easily roam"

or so says the lyrics of this song which is currently being hammered on Singaporean television.

There is a sad irony about "live and breathe" with the haze continuing and the current state visit of the Indonesian President; whose country is responsible for polluting the lungs of everyone living in Singapore.

My past week has been punctuated by the frightening reality of an antivirus software turned bad. My McAfee antivirus software (which I downloaded from our work network at the behest of our IT department) decided to misbehave.

The result being that I could not access my PC for a day or two. At moments like this one realises just how reliant we have become on technology - checking the weather, the condo prices, the exchange rates...

Thankfully we have some excellent IT technicians at work and one of them was able to correct matters.

I am also without a passport at the moment and therefore confined to Singapore for the duration. There is nothing untoward about this, as I have sent it back for renewal through our local High Commission. The process as I understand it takes a month?

Renewing a passport is an exercise in stepping back in time. Looking at the passport photos in old travel documents graphically documents the deterioration of man. No passport image is ever flattering and it is cold comfort to realise that they get progressively worse over time.

Perhaps it's a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

Jakarta Hotel Bombings

News in this morning that the Ritz Carlton in Jakarta, where I stayed a couple of months ago (see this entry), has been attacked by Indonesian terrorists.

The hotel cafe where several people were killed is where I and my regional colleagues enjoyed our breakfasts when we attended our meeting there.



It is fairly sobering to consider that it could have been us amongst the dead and maimed - it is just luck that our visit did not coincide with this cold blooded act.

Tethered Monkeys and Shanty Towns

This is written from the luxury of my corner room at the Ritz Carlton Kuninga in Jakarta.

I say luxury, because it is with a feeling of guilt that I recall the shanties with their rusty red corrigated iron roofs that we passed on the way in from the airport.

The disparity between rich and poor is very evident in Indonesia. Jakarta alone has more than 10 million people, or to put it into context, two and a half times the entire popuation of New Zealand.

Every day for many is a story of subsistence and surival. My limousine passed a boy with his pet monky tethered to its owner's wrist, performing acrobatics in the hope of attracting alms from passing motorists.

Further on, a piece of hose snaked from behind a clump of bamboo to the roadside and a motorcyclist was filling up from what I took to be an illicit petrol supply.

The goreng(fried food)hand carts were setting off for late afternoon as my driver took a short cut through the local neighbourhood in East Jakarta. It is a sight that one used to see in old Singapore, but no more, as the hawkers there are largely confined to stalls and the itinerant variety disappeared several years ago.

The pollution haze that I remember from my last visit to the capital over a decade ago remains.