Singapore is Sixty!

Ovidia--every other Tuesday

Singapore is 60 years old!

I didn't make it to watch the National Day Parade this year; this banner is from the park next door where we went to watch the Red Lions doing flybys over the heartlands--

You probably can't tell from the photo (we couldn't in real life) but one of the pilots in one of those planes is the brother of the fiance of a cousin of one of our neighbours here, which is why we all congregated to cheer them on...

We were also treated to a military and emergency vehicle drive past--though I got a better view of them from home (too many trees in the park!)

At the parade proper there were floats, military formations, cultural presentations, a full fighter jet flypast followed by skydivers, rainbow clouds of (environmentally friendly) dust, fireworks and a sturgeon moon...

It's a big milestone because the Sixty Year Anniversary marks a full cycle in the traditional Chinese calendar system. This is the first Year of the Wood Serpent since our first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s tearful public broadcast in 1965, of which he said,
“By accepting separation, I had failed them. That sense of guilt made me break down. It was my moment of anguish. The deed was done, but I was overwrought at the thought of all the shattered hopes we had aroused.”

The root of the separation was that some in Malaysia would not accept Singapore’s call for racial equality.

As Lee Kuan Yew said, many in Malaysia expected Singapore to “come crawling back” within six months. Malaysia controlled resources like rubber and tin while Singapore, with no natural resources, was dependent on Malaysia for water and food. It was expected that Singapore’s economy would collapse and the island forced to accept terms dictated by Malaysia.

It seemed like a pipe dream when Lee Kuan Yew said to a people colonised by the Brits, crushed by the Japs then kicked out of Malaysia, “Be firm, be calm. We are going to have a multi-racial nation in Singapore. We will set the example... Everybody will have his place. Equal. Language, culture, religion.”

It's been more than six months. So far so good...

But the real gift isn’t military hardware or aerial displays. It's not even the CDC (Community Development Council) vouchers every household receives that can be used to pay for meals and groceries but not alcohol or cigarettes.
Or maybe it is the vouchers, a little, and people saying (after paying with CDC), "Lawrence Wong buying us dinner tonight!"

But the big thing for me is knowing it's possible to take an impossible situation and say "Let's go for it" and survive to thrive.

It's something worth remembering every time you're ploughing through the messy middle of a new book!

Happy National Day, Singapore. And Thank You.

Us (Singapore) watching the USA, UK and Ukraine from a distance...

Ovidia--every other Tuesday I've been trying to finish a draft--after a reshaping shift because apparently Americans won't be uncomfortable with a 'Rubber Tree' mystery and no, there's no such thing as an 'Eraser Tree'. So... a quick shift and I'm now working on the 'Rose Apple Tree Mystery'!

Which makes these jambu doves very happy--

These sweet birds don't just love rose apples ('Jambu' is the local name for rose apples) but the pink blush on the male's chest matches the colour of the ripe fruit.

But it just shows how much influence America has on the rest of the world and I wanted to write about how hopeful the world feels right now, with all the news coming at us from the USA (pre-November Election info is really uplifting), the UK (anti-racists rising to defend the narrative) and Ukraine (where a tiny nation is still holding out against Goliath). It's all very far away from, yet hugely impactful on us here in Singapore.

Anyone who's heard of Singapore knows we are a really small country. And we just celebrated our 59th National Birthday last Saturday, meaning we're a really young nation too.

But it's not all about fireworks and sky divers. We've come a long way since 1965. As our Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. '... since 1965, Singapore has changed, people have changed, two younger generations have grown up. Now, we are in a country that is safe, secure, prosperous, stable and united' and we have to stay that way,'
This year though, it was the first time it rained on a National Day, since the first National Day in 1966.

People usually credit the 'chilli bawang', onions and chillis skewared on a satay stick, that's supposed to prevent rain from falling.

But this year it did rain earlier in the day, just not long enough to disrupt events.

Yes, our 'worries' are small, relative to what people in other nations (think Gaza and Ukraine) are living with.

And we get joy in small things too. When 17 year old Max Maeder earned Singapore's first (and only) Olympic medal in kitefoiling, it was announced at the National Day Festivities and both President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong congratulated him for giving Singapore a beautiful birthday gift.
I heard he was devastated at only getting the bronze, but he's already inspired a lot of people. Yesterday in the park by my home, two young girls and a boy showed me their 'kitefoiling' training, using an umbrella and a skateboard. They looked like they were nine or ten years old--well, they have four years until the next Olympics!

But the thing about being really small is, 'when elephants make love or war, the grass suffers'. Our survival depends a lot on what's happening in the world around us.
And that's why the news coming out of the USA feels so hopeful right now.

My experience of America comes mostly from Mystery Conferences. Mystery readers and writers are really lovely people, so I've had a very positive impression, despite their former President who, after declaring his intention to be tough on China, recalled the American ambassador to Singapore (no, we're Not part of China).

That's been cleared up. But still, the prospect of that President returning wasn't pleasant, so the groundbreaking swell of support for the other candidate has been great. And it's made me see that not all conservatives feel the same way as he does.

Can I say I believe America has had some really great Republican Presidents instead of dwelling on the recent worst?
Lincoln, who abolished slavery
Roosevelt, who steered the country through the industrial revolution and built the Panama Canal
Einsenhower, who connected the country with interstate highways
and Reagan, who held the USA together and provided a stabilising point for us in the rest of the world as the USSR dissolved.

But now I'm really hoping that the world will see the USA elect a Democratic President who will work to return America to the ideals it was founded on, and that America will again become a beacon of liberty and justice for all--both within and beyond her borders.

(after the November elections, if we still have an embassy in America, maybe we could send her a pineapple? Traditionally, when moving into a new house, you take the pineapple and roll it all over so that your new house will be prosperous and abundant as long as you inhabit it)

But then again, given the chilli bawang didn't work this year maybe not...

The news from the UK is positive too, as anti-racists rise up against violence and in Ukraine, Russia might be coming round to the idea that a sustainable peace would serve the Russian people better than a long drawn out war of 'quick' conquest.

Again, it's not our business, but it's hard not to feel lifted by the positive energy in the world today.
(And yes, back to writing...)

Pinking about Singapore's National Day and Legally Blonde

 Ovidia--every other Tuesday

Happy 58th Birthday, Singapore!

I was going to write about how, in order to plough through the current draft of the current book, I missed all this year's National Day get togethers and celebrations... but unfortunately for my attempt at self pity, I was reminded of Elle Woods wailing that in order to study for her LSATS she even blew off Greek Week... 

Is anyone here old enough to remember Legally Blonde? The pretty pink and pretty feminist movie before Barbie came along?

[The fun scenes if you want to look them up: 'Excuse me. Why didn't you call me?' 'He's Gay!' (although it doesn't really work because Enrique could be bi), 'Elle Interrogates Chutney']

But one thing I really loved in the show?

Elle gets her greatest triumph when she embraces who she is rather than covering it up. She's back in a pink suit when she conducts her final cross examination (after toning herself down to fit into horrible Prof Callahan's team) and she wins the case--thanks to her fashion knowledge. 

The pink theme feels triumphantly relevant this year because this is the first National Day since Singapore was founded that it hasn't been illegal to be gay in Singapore.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned the move to repeal Section 377A (a legacy of our British Colonial Masters) in his National Day Rally speech last year, 

and on Dec 27, 2022 President Halimah Yacob assented to it being struck off the books.

Thank you President Halimah!

In one year we've gone from calls to:

(Photo: Pink Dot 2022)

to being an inclusive family, regardless of our differences:

(Photo: Pink Dot 2023)

It's never too little and it's never too late. 

And we can all live together legally--and in pink.