Thursday, July 14, 2011

Singapore getting diluted?

*Originally appeared in my other blog

It appears so. I saw and heard a lot of evidences in the past 2 weeks. To list them out:

1. I and my friend were standing in a MRT station (underground) waiting for the train. A woman came almost running and dropped few pealed skin of oranges behind the pillar. We were standing behind the pillar and we were watching the whole thing; in fact she knew we (for that matter few other people who were waiting for the train too) were watching but she was least bothered. She dropped the pealed skins and walked slowly as if she had done nothing and sat on the bench and waited for the train. How can she ever do that?

2. On that day I was going to Bukit Batok driving center. I had evaluation exam or something. I took the green line and I had to change line at Jurong East station. Those who don’t know about the station: To change line from Green to Red at Jurong East one can just alight at the stop and walk straight to the waiting red line train. So as usual the red line train was waiting. It was fully packed. People were standing out in the platform and waiting to board the next train. They didn’t squeeze themselves in. I had alighted and I ran to board this waiting train. In a few seconds I knew I cannot board the train because it was already full and people were already waiting and so I slowed my pace. But I could see some people still running with a hope to board the already fully packed train. I watched. In spite of people waiting to board the next train, these new people started to squeeze themselves in to the train. They adjusted themselves with in the slightest gap available. After settling themselves, they just stared the ground and never looked at the people who were already waiting outside the train, never.

3. I was waiting for the green man when a CRV stopped in the nearest bus bay and continued to wait there for few minutes, making other buses to wait for this CRV to move. On the same day I saw another SUV which stopped way after the white line and poked its nose in to the pedestrian crossing.

4. Previous week there was a robbery in one of my friends house. Planned robbery. We were shocked to hear this news because it happened to one of my close friend’s wife. She was alone that day when suddenly current went off. Can you imagine power cut in singapore? No way. She was a bit worried and called her husband. After a while 2 “big” men came and told her that there is an up gradation going on and they will have to check the house and do some changes. This poor girl didn’t gave a second thought and let those 2 “big” men inside the house. And there started the problem. They robbed her gold chain, bangles, watches, her husband’s chain, cell phones etc. They had a one year old baby boy whom those 2 “big” guys had used to blackmail the girl.

5.On the night of this diwali my baby was running high temperature. We do our regular checkups at Kinder Clinic but since that was a public holiday we had no choice but to go to KKH. This was our first visit with baby to KKH.There was a big crowd. And once I entered the emergency information/appointment/registration/pre-checkup hall I saw bits of notice standing on the table showing “Consultation fee $80”. Almost on all counters.After waiting for 2 hours we got our turn to see the doctor.We explained and gave all the data correctly for which she promptly replied “there is a 90% chance of H1N1 for the baby”. And advised us to start Tummy Flu. I asked her why can’t we do some test to confirm this; for which she replied me that now H1N1 has become a common flu and for almost all the cases they prescribe Tummy Flu. And she insisted that the baby need to start taking Tummy Flu with in 48 hours of the fever. Already a day has gone. We were scared. Taking Tummy Flu has its own complications. It is not as simple as taking Panadol. For one reason it is bitter and children(especially toddlers)  find it extremely difficult to drink it. One must mix it with ice cream or something. Another thing is for some children this may lead to nausea, diarrhea etc. Scary information. My kid had nausea effect and she vomited for first three doses. She was very tired and she had diarrhea too. 2 days gone. No effect. Fever didn’t subside. We were really scared now. Luckily the next day, our baby’s pediatrician returned from his overseas conference and I thought of consulting him too; just in case. I was right. At first look our pediatrician told that this is not H1N1. After few checkups he concluded that this is just an ear infection. And he told me that he has a kit to test for H1N1 positive and he can get the result in 5 mins. Just 5 mins. He was pretty much shocked that KKH has prescribed Tummy Flu for ear infection with out even doing this 5 mins test. My baby got well with in 8 hours after we gave her the antibiotic prescribed by our pediatrician.
These are just few examples. What is happening? I am staying in Singapore for almost 5 years now. This is the first time I am seeing a dilution and this is really not good.

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