A Singaporean In Australia

This is going to sound like a broken record. However, I believe there are a few genres of music that are inspired by the a broken record and those are surprisingly popular with the masses. So I cannot say for sure every person who reads this will feel junk and wasted a 1 minute of their time. I never grow tired of talking about this topic because of 2 reasons. 1) These are facts, not opinions. 2) No Singapore fan-boys can ever dispute Perth's superiority over Singapore in this aspect.

The topic is air.

The post can technically ends here because it is as clear as the sky (here) that air quality in Perth is better than in Singapore. For the benefit of our nerdy friends here, here are some figures to support this claim.

These figures do not reflect the annual haze party in Singapore. Never mind about the figures. What I will be concerned about as a Singaporean is the party organisers seem to increase the duration of their parties every year. You know, I go speechless whenever I hear or read people going about bush fires in Australia as an equivalence to the haze situation in Singapore. I don't know who made the rule that it is rude to call stupid people stupid. That made me go speechless because I didn't want to be rude. Stupid people are allowed to go scot-free yet again.

Just 2 days ago, I received this picture (left) from Duchess M, who was "screaming" in whatsapp about the bush fire that occurred in her suburb. I looked out of my window, saw a crow flying past in the clear blue sky and replied her, "There is a bush fire?"

"Yes and embers landed on houses and burnt them down. Houses with swimming pools are not spared!"

I think she needs a lesson in fire defence but my point here is that I live about 40 minutes drive from her and I don't even know there is a bush fire over there because it was still clear blue over here. Lest anyone would like to bring up the great bush fire tragedy on Black Saturday that wiped out suburbs in Victoria, note that it was termed a disaster for a reason. The rarity of that magnitude of the damage. The Indonesian haze, in contrast, happens so consistently every year that no one is willing to call it a disaster which in fact, it is, to the Indonesians who do not benefit from the irresponsible burning at least. However, I do not believe any Singaporean do not feel the slightest discomfort during the haze period. In fact, many people I know fall sick due to the bad air quality. If haze blanket parties are going to last at least 1 month each year, residents of the region will breathe crap for 10% of their lives. If that sounds acceptable to you, why don't you try drinking a glass of longkang water for every 9 glass of clean water you take?

Since we are at the topic of water, it is appropriate to give you a different perspective of air. Many of us know the importance of drinking good water. In fact, many Singaporean friends I know are willing to pay a premium for good quality drinking water. You know, Diamond Water and those shit. My friends reckon that since we are drinking a recommended 2L of water a day, it is wise to ensure we drink the best we can to ensure good health. If everyone can agree with that, I wonder why the intake of quality air has always been neglected. According to the Internet, a human being takes in 11,000L of air per day, of which your lungs will filter, absorb oxygen, exhale and repeat. That is 5500 times your water intake. If bad quality water is a path to bad health, have you been ignoring what you have been breathing? 

The problem is that unlike water, we have little control of the air quality we breathe. Air purifying products, at best, produce mediocre results and doesn't work outdoors. Due to the insane amount of air we breathe a day, it isn't cost effective to import "good air" from the French Alps. Since we can't do a thing to change the situation, we dismiss its importance, carry on with life and talk about high taxes in Australia. 

Granted that the air quality in Singapore during the non-haze months is pretty good, as compared to some Asian cities, but it doesn't make me feel good breathing them. I'll use an experiment demonstrated by my lecturer in Fluid Mechanics to illustrate my point. He showed our class 2 jars of water. On his left was a clear fluid, as pure as how clean water should look. On his right was jar of murky water with stuff floating around when stirred. He called out to the class for an answer, "Which jar holds the more impure water?" Of course, the class chose the wrong answer. That was the point of it, right? With his apparatus, he was able to prove to the class that the jar of clear "water" contains so much impurities that it will land one in the hospital within minutes if we drink it. The murky glass will not even give us a run to the toilet. However, will anyone of us drink that "clean" murky water? None of us wanted to try.

If I enjoy breathing hot air, I'd have worked as a baker. If you are skeptical about the effects of breathing cold, clean air, come over during Autumn or Winter and see for yourself how much it refreshes you. 

Mind, body and soul.