Old People in a New Country

One of the things that always struck me in Israel, when I lived there, was when you see old people, and you think, "wow - they must have been around before Israel was a state. Maybe they even had a part in building the state." When you talk to old people in Israel, everyone has a story about the fight for independence, and what they did in the wars in 67 and 73. It seems that people there feel that they built the country - together with the rest of their generation. They're proud and empowered.

On the other hand, I also think about that here. Singapore in the 60s looks NOTHING like Singapore now - and the way it looks is way more drastically different than how Israel looks. Singapore has a big downtown with skyscrapers (nothing like Tel Aviv), and basically the whole population has moved from living in kampongs/villages to HDB flats/public housing apartments. We often ask old people where they grew up, and they tell us they grew up in a village somewhere, which we literally can't imagine. I think I read in the paper that there is one village left in Singapore...but, the attitude of the elderly when they talk about the past and how different it is now feels totally different than in Israel. In Singapore, it seems as if the country were built around them - almost as if they were victims/silent participants. The people we talk to don't seem to feel as if they were a part of it, rather that it was all from the top, and some like it, and some don't. It's possible that we're not talking to the right people, but I don't think we have access to those people!

I know that the reasons for existence of these two countries is drastically different, and development in Singapore was definitely specifically economic development, while in Israel there was much more idealism, Zionism, and a fundamental belief that the country should exist. I don't know if I'm explaining it well, but they do feel different. So I understand that we're not comparing apples to apples, but it is interesting to note the differences.

In other news I must highlight four of the articles in today's fabulous paper.
1 - on the front page there is an article about a new campaign about picking your nose and "littering" the boogers. Apparently the government's new campaign is to get people to stop littering - and a sub-campaign is about littering your boogers (which I'm sure creates HUGE problems - you know those piles of boogers...). They want to show that it's gross. I can't even comment on this. It's fricken hilarious.

2 - unfortunately a person was killed in their car last week due to a random falling tree branch. So, yesterday there was TONS of traffic, because the government was out in full force trimming trees all over the island. I understand that emotionally, people like the government to have a response when someone is killed, but if they would just look at the statistics about how many people are killed from falling tree branches, and how many people are killed from, say, sitting in the back of an open truck...there might be more effective ways to save lives?

3 - apparently some jay-walkers are over the age of 50 and not quite as agile, but they're still jay-walking. This warrants an article?

4 - there's a great article about how many Singaporean men are choosing to marry Vietnamese young wives. Apparently it's just easier, because you don't have to take the time to get to know them - you can just marry them quickly, so you can "get going" on creating a family and settling down much faster. Hmmm...sounds a little not so sustainable to me. I can't wait for the follow up article in a few years.

In other news, Matt and I have agreed to purchase (we haven't yet handed the money or received the goods) some beautiful furniture. It's our first real grown-up furniture of our lives. There is a couple going back to the UK, and they're selling BEAUTIFUL stuff, so we got an incredible antique-style wooden Chinese dining table with six chairs, a matching coffee table, a gorgeous and comfy king size bed and a chair. It's beautiful, and I'm excited. We went to a warehouse place that sells Balinese furniture (CHEAP!) yesterday to see what we can get to supplement, and we found a few other pieces that we might try to get once we actually have an apartment and know what it will look like. Favourites include a beautiful Balinese daybed trundle (so we need a big guest room!), and some gorgeous living room/foyer pieces. We would still need a big comfy sofa...

In yet other news, we also looked in baby stores for the first time yesterday. We have our list of what we absolutely need before the baby comes, and most of it is stuff we can get at Carrefour or a supermarket, but the rest were a car seat, a stroller/pram/trolley/pushchair and some newborn clothes. My mom brought some clothes, and the Hildebrandts (who arrived last night) also brought some clothes, but we went a-looking for the rest, and we decided on a car seat/stroller situation that we think will work. We still don't HAVE anything in our house, since they were out of stock on the stroller, and we decided to wait on the car seat to see if it goes on sale (the stroller was on SUPER sale), since we still have about a month and a half before we NEED it, but we're getting there. The fetus was excited and therefore doing somersaults all day long.