“It isn’t enough to talk about peace, one must believe it. And it isn’t enough to to believe in it, one must work for it.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

I was at Labrador Park, Singapore, a few weeks ago. It was like taking a walk in history. I took these shots with the Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot camera phone with sepia effect, to give it a little historical feel. The first shot was that of a machine gun post set up to protect 12-pounder guns on the hill right above it and the second shot was that of a gun.

Reading the title of this post, what came into your mind? I must be kidding? How can Human be beast? From Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, he theorized that humans were derived from apes. So that make us beast?

We have indeed come a long way. We have tried controlling our environment, which once (still is) fed and provided natural resources in abundance for us. We have created weapons capable of massive destruction. We have grown intellectually and yet emotionally ever ready to jump and to destroy each other at the slightest provocation.

Perhaps, all that wouldn’t justify us as beast? Recently, I picked up an interesting book ‘The World Without Us’ by Alan Weisman from the library. Alan questions: How would the world change if human beings vanished from the earth right now, for good? What would the planet be like in a day, a week, a month … a millennium?

In the book, it is mentioned that we genetically most resemble the chimpanzees. Dr. Michael Wilson who does field research at Gombe Stream, Tanzania, observed chimpanzees in wild tearing apart and devouring red colobus monkeys. They are superb hunter, about 80% of their attempts are successful kills. Comparing to lions, it is only about one out of 10 or 20.

Dr. Michael Wilson also observed something sad and kind of depressing. Chimpanzees were seen stealing into the territories of neighboring chimp groups, ambushed unwary lone males, and maul them to death.

In the book (observed by Dr. Michael Wilson), “… He watched chimps over months patiently pick off males of neighboring clans until the territory and the females are theirs. He also seen pitched chimpanzee combat, and blood battles within a group to determine who is the alpha male.” Do you see the resembles in human aggression and power struggles?

When I was reading that passage, I couldn’t help but felt deeply how human has acted in the same way. We may have evolved to become a superior primate but some of us may not have renounced ‘the beast’ within yet. Fortunately, I believe that majority of the people have not only evolved intellectually but also emotionally.

This was taken with Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot Camera Phone in the Singapore HortPark, marked as Leopard Flower and origin from China. In Wikipedia, it was stated that it is used in Chinese villages for its medicinal values. The first thing I saw in the car park of HortPark was this beautiful flower. And there were bees busy pollinating the flower. I tried to take shots of the bees on the Leopard Flower but I was too slow.

According to Wikipedia, Belamcanda chinensis (Blackberry lily, Leopard flower, Leopard lily) is an ornamental plant in the Iridaceae family. In 2005, based on molecular DNA sequence evidence, Belamcanda chinensis, the sole species in the genus Belamcanda, was transferred to the genus Iris and renamed Iris domestica.

The plant grows 60-90 cm tall in full sun and is often found blanketing hill sides, the flowers can range form red to yellow to orange or mixed and bloom in summer to early autumn (fall).

I was just slightly disturbed over an incidence that happened before the movie start; I saw a guy resting his legs over the top of the seat in the row in front of him. Looking on the bright side, at least he bothered to take off his shoes before doing that inconsiderate act.

He put down his legs only when the seats in front of him were taken up. How would you feel, if you were the one taking those seats? I just hope that the guy takes good care of his legs’ hygiene.

Do Singaporeans really have no sense of self-respect as was criticised by Jackie Chan, in a recent speech he made during the Boao Forum for Asia?

At first I was furious when I learned that he made such a senseless remark. There is a saying by Abraham Lincoln that goes something like this, “I am not bothered by what others said about me as long as I know they were not speaking the truth of me.” So I shouldn’t be bothered right? Not exactly, because I know that there are some truths to what he said.

Look at the example of the guy I saw in the cinema over the weekend. Not to mention, the amount of litters you can see around the mail box when there is a trash can just besides it. And then there is the usual rushing into the subway’s cabins whenever the subway reaches the station and the cabin’s doors open. Couldn’t they (the people rushing in) allow the people inside the cabin to come out first?

Back to the mail box area, was it really easier to throw the junk mails on the floor than to throw it into the trashcan, which is just about a metre away? Or is it as what Jackie Chan said, that Singaporeans really have no sense of self-respect?

Instead of saying that Singaporeans have no sense of self-respect, would it be more appropriate if I should say that Singaporeans have no sense of civic-consciousness? Now the next questions are, “Is it true only in the case of Singaporean or do you see such lack of civic-consciousness in your country too?

I believe that civic-consciousness voices down to the individual and it is not an unique characteristic of a particular nation. Education, cultures and upbringing play a part in forming the civic-consciousness of the individual. Laws and regulations are sometimes made to force through the civic-consciousness.

In the example of Singapore, anyone caught littering can be made to do Corrective Work Order (CWO); the litterbugs are basically made to clean up parks, beaches and house estates. Many never made the same mistakes again.

Jackie Chan may ridicule the laws in Singapore but some times these laws are there to protect the majority from the minority. And most time, whether certain laws are there or not, they never bother the majority at all because I believe that most people are civic-conscious.