Close Proximity, Minds Apart

Every time I stroll along the KT Waterfront at night, I would have my hands full arresting couples caught for khalwat or for making out in close proximity - that is, if I were a Pegawai Pencegah Maksiat.  But the sight of couples making out does not distract my  urge to compare the thinking process of the people who created this waterfront and the thinking process of those who created Singapore's Gardens By The Bay. 

The KT waterfront is indeed spectacular at night, thanks to the bright and vibrant artificial trees lining the waterfront. There's nothing as attractive in KT.

On closer look, the spectacle is just decorative lights in the form oftrees lined up in no particular artistic fashion - just planted without any further thought. Not much artistic value, no functional value. Not sure if the lights are meant to attract sotong for the candak sotong season.

Wonder what's the planner's or designer's vision is for the KT waterfront.

Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, is a 250-acre sprawling series of indoor and outdoor waterfront gardens. It is part of a not-so-simple plan to reinvent Singapore as a city in a garden. The idea is to create a sustainable garden in the city, generating a better environment for humans with a creative fusion of technology and nature.

The man-made mechanical forest consists of 18 supertrees that act as vertical gardens, generating solar power, acting as air venting ducts for nearby conservatories, and collecting rainwater. To generate electricity, 11 of the trees are fitted with solar photovoltaic systems that provide lighting and assist with water flow in the conservatories below.

These trees serve several purposes: they act as a vertical tropical garden, as the engine room for the environmental systems of the conservatory, and as rainwater receptacles. And yes, they light up at night!

The Supertrees, which vary in height between 80 and 160 feet, are made of four parts: reinforcement concrete core, trunk, planting panels of the living skin, and canopy. Just like non-mechanized forests, the large canopies operate as temperature moderators, absorbing and dispersing heat, as well as providing shelter to visitors walking below. This suite of technologies can help to achieve at least 30% savings in energy consumption, compared to conventional methods of cooling, according to the project’s website.

Special sky bridges connect a few of the trees, for those brave enough to walk above Earth at the height of the top of skyscrapers.

Are KT's city planners and developers brave enough to bridge the mind gap?

Basic Instinct

Salam Eid Mubarak :-) As our friends join the balik kampong exodus, I'm reminded of what balik kampong means to me.

My “balik kampong” means ascending to being human again. Each Raya Balik Kampong reminds me of the profound journey I took in my early secondary school life. In those days, every month I would balik kampong - a journey that took almost five hours on foot and a river crossing in a sampan.

On one of those occasions, I arrived home and handed over to my mum an application form for a scholarship of eight ringgit a month from my school. My mum took the form, tossed it into the wood fire as she was cooking (She didn’t need to read it as she is illiterate). That profound moment is the most spiritual thing on earth residing in me - my north star.

Recently, I was reminded of that moment as I took the Menara KH lift on my way to the KL office on the 25th floor. Together in the lift was a pretty lady and her colleague with a trolley load of Raya gift baskets and hampers. She was busy ticking off the names of recipients on her long list. If I were to receive one of those Raya gifts, my mum would ask if I earned it. Still, she would insist that I’m not entitled to it and that I should not even feel entitled to receiving free gifts or to things that I do not earn.

The sight of Raya gift hampers in the office cuts to the quick of my psyche with searching questions asked of my basic human soul - the question of whether I should feel that I am really entitled to many things in life such as having no obligation to pay income tax, or a parking space in front of the office, or a bumiputra status or a big office room or a company driver to do my personal errands, or hand-outs from the Government or Raya gift hampers from the vendors. Should I feel entitled to things even if I don’t earn them?

Feeling entitled has been woven into the fabrics of our culture as amplified by the “No Gift Policy” notice placed by a Fortune Global 500 company, Petronas. The notice is placed at the registration counter of the Petronas Twin Towers. (Petronas climbed to 68th spot on the Fortune Global 500 list, up from previous ranking of 86th).

When I receive a Raya gift hamper from a vendor, is it for me or for my office? Should I take it home or should I leave it in the office to be shared with my colleagues? As I balik kampong for the Raya, I hope my north star guides me to feel that a no-gift policy takes me to my basic human being.

Selamat Hari Raya, maaf zahir batin