Antiphon

The post CT holidays vanished abit too quickly. School today however, needed no books. It's the first day of enrichment week.
In the morning it was the OCS visit. Not all too interesting in the least, since I'll probably be as familiar if not more with those toys in <2 years or so. Had a taste of the MREs (meals-ready-to-eat), and I got this feeling that I'll end up eating more biscuits than any of the the other food available. The last thing I need is weird food messin' with my stomache while I'm trying not to appear a boboshooter. Heck, the only thing that's reassuring about firing on target is a cross hair in the scope of the SAR21.
The dumb dumb backpack signal set is something out of the movie Windtalkers. Unless I'm suffering from amnesia (could be, after CTs), that stuff is used back in WW2 -.-' . While Nokia tosses out new phone models 10x quicker than Coke types, it's amazing how the SAF still has to rely on careful trekking through jungles in case they break the metre long antenna in pieces. There goes radio-ing for help, food, ammo, even a chance to listen to 98.7FM! Ok that's not remotely possible. Batteries take up half the weight of the signal set, and yet it can only transmit signals of up to 3 km more than a handheld one. Maybe Mindef ran out of $$ on communication equipment, they rather feed the troops nicer stuff. OK JOKING. It's obvious we're hidden in the dark as to what the army actually possess for safety precautions.
Camouflage station was funny. We're told to actually look for a cadet hiding, but apparently some mega big bush just blocked everything that I could even "camo" in there with my nj uniform. Not too surprisingly, the cadet was actually sitting on a chair while trying to hide. It's a rare "day off" for them anyway, so you can't really blame them for wanting to slack. I was chosen to have my face painted in a "creative" manner, and ended up having turtles drawn on my cheeks with a "王八" on my forehead =/ Luckily I asked for the "蛋" to be left out.At least I won't get to do that 2 years later, or I'll find myself washing toilets forever ^^
While OCS wasn't too interesting, Pulau Semakou was better.
We took a long ferry ride to "rubbish" island, and had a tour guide telling us about each of the Southern Islands.
The offshore landfill is actually 2 smaller islands, Pulau Saking and Pulau Semakou joined together by 7km perimeter rock bund, to form 350 hectares of "land" space. The sea in between is then divided using sand bunds into cells, 11 currently, and they are sealed by black impermeable membranes. Ashes and non-incinerable stuff are then stuffed into these membranes until nearly full, and are covered by a layer of soil and vegetation. The result? It just looks like any of the surrounding islands. Really neat.
The guide said it's not just politically correct to say it is environmentally friendly, it is factually correct to say so. There isn't a single patch of stale sea water around since cells that aren't used for dumping are connected by pipes to the open sea, and lots of "residents" made this island their home. Unlike the landfill anyone would simply imagine to be piles of rubbish resembling the Rocky Mountains, or being able to sniff it from miles away, there is nothing around indicating that it is even a landfill. It looks like another section out of East Coast Park.
Ok so wow, I just blabbered alot of stats on this island. Oh wait, I've forgotten to mention that.. this is the last landfill Singapore will have and it would run out in 40 years....
ZOMG WHERE'S ALL MY RUBBISH GOING TO GO? I GOTTA SLEEP NEXT TO THEM WHEN I GROW UP? WILL THERE BE "NEWFOOD" FROM WASTE LIKE NEWATER?
No, seriously, I'm not contemplating eating "NEWFOOD" if it ever existed. The manager of the island told us to go and think about solutions to this horrifying waste problem. And so I've thought of some....
1) TAX THOSE PLASTIC BAGS! Maybe this time people will actually consider bringing their own ones around. I don't get how people can get new bags from NTUC each time they shop for a few years and still worry about running out of them. Would also save some $$ for incinerators whenever they burn plastic stuff since they needn't treat any harmful gases.
2) Clothing must be passed down to siblings! This would save money for me - I mean everyone! Kinda sucks when your older siblings are hogging onto a cupboard full of clothes and they're not willing to share >:( . Would benefit me best since I have no fashion sense and I haven't bought clothes in years - literally. I don't know where to get them XD
3) Items are to be given away unless they are spoiled. Would be convenient to pass my ancient DVDs or storybooks off as Christmas presents to my relatives (never did celebrate it). How about that handphone which my cousin is intending to throw away, but when placed next to mine, would be like comparing Nike sneakers to slippers. Apparently my cousin has never seen so ancient a model as mine that he suggested that I keep it so as to sell it in the not too distant future as an antique :(
Ok I shall end here since the rest of the ideas revolve around umm... well you guessed it, "NEWFOOD". Yucks. I'm satisfied enough with all the goodies the cheapskate me is going to get if the above are enacted as laws.
On a serious note, Singapore has really walked pretty far in terms of handling environmental issues. There's only so much landfills, the campaigning on the 3 R's, or having SembCorp place green plastic bags at your doorstep etc etc, can do. We all have to do our part by consuming less and reusing more.
Or you'll end up looking at "NEWFOOD" invading our menus XD