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

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)

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.

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.