Gentrification, through the process of renovation and creative ventures, has improved Singapore into a more tasteful and developed place that can suit people better. It means that things are constantly being made better and improving. For example, in Tiong Bahru today, we saw many places that suits the pop culture of today and more artistic approaches in book stores and cafes to make them more cosy and comfy, in contrast to the pale white buildings and houses. While this might attract more customers, it also increase the cost of maintaining an establishment as shopkeepers not only have to pay high rents due to competition, but also face additional cost of maintenance. Thus, while it has caused positive effects in improving our life style, it has also forced people to the edge. As I was walking down the street with Mary explaining how she was born in the air raid shelter and the type of housing Singapore had, I realised how important preservation is. Without the actual buildings, it would have been impossible for me to understand what she was saying, to verify it or to understand its relevance. Of course, I can compute that there were steep spiral staircases and apartments having multiple staircases connected to them, but, I would not be able to appreciate the system or see the development. This would not only lead to the loss of identity but would lead me to take the current infrastructure, which is safer, for granted. The knowledge of the old inspires the wiseness of the new. Moreover, there is a whole generation who lived in those buildings and those form the bulk of their life and the loss of these memorials is going to make them feel displaced, because their home is something that does not reflect them anymore. Over the years, due to urbanization, we have lost our kampongs, the spirit that once kept us close, so much so that we left comfortable enough to leave the doors open as we slept, give our keys to the neighbors when we left for holidays. Now, in the name of sophistication, we have become lonely islands, who don’t even know the name of our neighbors. In the pursuit of urbanization, we are also losing our history, our experiences, as we become so concentrated on growth that we fail to reflect, in forms of disappearing shop houses and old HDB blocks, which are becoming pricey and inaccessible these days. I have also concluded that our past is shaped by experiences and that textbooks are not entirely reliable or fully revealing the true extent of reality. What we should look up to is survivors and landscapes because that is what makes our past tangible to me.
LIFE
Spiral stairs, steep and high
A new journey, threatening fall
A fall will diminish any hope of rise
I climb on, believing the foundation
Even as the feet shakes and the heart thumps
I imagine the sight of blood,
My fathers gift to the nation
One star shines as another diminishes
Living through the other’s energy,
00 15, a new beginning
I look at the red and white flag
I look at the home that I lost without knowing
But love with all my heart
The 3ft square doorway to haven
What we lost can never be gained back
What we have can be improved
I think as I stare at the sky scraping condominiums
And my birthplace that is now history
So that the colors in the cafe,
The sweet smell of knowledge in bookstores
Shine brightly for one future
"Forgotten"- A Writing Journey 