Monday, September 19, 2011

RECENT EVENTS - SINGAPORE

This blog is about recent events in Singapore. We had the Singapore National Day celebrations on 9th August and preceding this event were weekends of rehearsals including Helicopter displays, fighter jets formation flights, marching bands and so on. Here are a few videos of one of the rehearsals, with Helicopter displays.

(Boeing Chinook Helicopter flies low over Marina Bay & drops off commandos into the water)

(Boeing Chinook Helicopter accompanied by Apaches flying Singapore flag over the marina bay area)

The month of August was the hungry ghost festival. I had described details of this festival in a blog that I posed in 2007, click on this to find that article. Following this "Ghost month", as they call it, was the Mid Autumn festival or the Lantern festival. Again, I had posted an article with information and photos of this event in 2007, click here to find that article. I am posting some of the lanterns that lined up Singapore river this year (2011).
(Lanterns lined up near Singapore River, Clarke Quay)

Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) is a famous new attraction/theme park in Singapore. They have many interesting things to see and do and also have a casino. The sad thing is that they are planning a marine park and had commissioned a Dolphin trader to trap Wild Dolphins from the Solomon Islands. Around 30 or so Dolphins were caught. A few died in captivity in their holding pens and the rest of the 27 Dolphins face a future where they are going to be trapped in a pool to entertain people. RWS claims that the Dolphins are for "education" but they have not responded convincingly to question put to them about their motives. I was part of the "Save the World's saddest Dolphins" concert last month and continue to support ACRES Singapore, an NGO fighting for these Dolphins, for their release back into the Wild. Here are some pictures and videos of that concert. We are not calling for a boycott of RWS but please avoid visiting the marine section when it opens. No imposition here, just an appeal. I am against incarceration of any animal and for Dolphins who are empathic animals, our cousins of the sea, it's like putting innocent people in jail.

 (Kids above holding pics of captive Dolphins with their own names, performances from local singers below)

(More performers at the free concert in aid of the Dolphins, "Let the Dolphins go" RWS was the theme)

Singapore Art Museum hosted a light manipulation show early this month, this involves lighting on the Art Museum Building that moves according to sound, it appears as if the building itself is speaking, expressing, moving. Here are some interesting videos of the event, enjoy the movements of light!


(Simple manipulation above, more complex one below)

 Recently, last weekend in fact (17th September 2011) was the International Coastal Cleanup Day. This is a global event where volunteers and organizations engage in cleaning up rivers, beaches, mangroves, all coastal areas in order to rid the environment of various types of garbage. Plastics are among the most use and throw items in the World today. Sadly, we are poisoning our rivers and oceans with this debris and harming the marine environment. Many marine animals are trapped and die due to the trash that humans throw away carelessly. Data shows that there are around 45,000+ pieces of plastic in every square mile of Ocean!
(Above: Volunteers from Land Transport Authority filing off to do their bit near Seletar Mangroves)

(Our group of 6 public volunteers bagging trash caught in the mangroves)

(Look at the trash collected in our area of mangroves in 2 hours-bagged in biodegradable plastic bags)

(Our Group of coastal clean up crew L-R Vinodini, LiLin, Forgot, Self, Anjali, Melissa)

No Country is free or safe from trash. Singapore, among the more cleaner cities in Asia, isn't immune to improper trash disposal. We have a problem here, as big as any other place. So, on this day, 2400 odd volunteers (Including yours truly) all around coastal Singapore managed to clean up 13 kilometres of coastline, removing some 12,000 Kilograms of trash from the beaches and mangroves. Some of those pictures are posted here as well.
(Degraded beach and mangroves are overlooking Malaysia port of Pasir Gudang viewed from Seletar)

There's not much else to write about at this point. I'll blog more when time permits and something new and exciting happens. Meanwhile, my advice to all, please spread awareness about reducing unnecessary consumption, reduce the amount of plastics in your lives, use jute or cloth bags for your shopping always, dispose off trash responsibly. Do you little bit and maybe we can still save the planet or at least continue to maintain it habitable for all creatures including ourselves. Cheers.

23 comments:

Teamgsquare said...

Wow ,wonderful work you are doing with those people for dolphin and nature

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks a lot! Cheers!

sunithashan said...

Wow, really wonderful picture you took.I love Singapore, I wish I could travel one day to Singapore.
But my summer holiday this year I spent in Toskana, a wonderful city in Italy!
Ferienhaus Toskana

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks for visiting my blog Sunitha. I hope you do visit Singapore some time. Nice to know about your trip to Italy! Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Excellent article..really informative..keep it up...:)

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Varghese!

shailendra singh said...

really wonderful picture..and good information..keep writing sir

love sms

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Shailendra!

Vishnu Kumar said...

Nice clicks and great job.

Jungle Lodges.

Anonymous said...

Can i have ur email id Capt. Anup Murthy? Thanks.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Vishnu

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks Vishnu

dreamcatcher said...

hello uncle..how are you?...i hope you remember me..Nikhil Jagadish. your blog is still as interesting as ever. really informative especially for guys like me who have a thing for airplanes.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Hi Nikhil, thanks for your compliment, as you may have observed, I am blogging very less these days. Not like in the past. I wish I can devote more free time. However, I will surely do a couple of posts before the year ends. How have you been? All well?

dreamcatcher said...

iv been good uncle. I'm guessing its been a long time since you visited india and in particular mysore. looking forward to your posts and your impending visit to our house. could i have your email id ?

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Nice to hear that. Yes, I haven't been back for a while, but maybe I'll be able to make a brief visit next month. Do one thing, post your email id on the comment thread, I wont publish the comment but will note the address and send you mail. This will prevent spamming from some quarters :) Thanks, all the best!

Dream Weaver said...

Very nice pics of Singapore. I miss the place, I want to go back there.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thanks DreamWeaver. Hope you make it back soon! Cheers!

Ava said...

Over here in Chandigarh and Panchkula, plastic bags are not allowed. After a while you get used to carrying a folding bag with you always. Shops are also begining to hand out cloth bags which are re-usable. Good publicity for them, as well.

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

That's great Avdi! I wish they'd do something similar here. Till that happens, some of us will be trying to pick up trash and plastics from our rivers and water bodies as volunteers whenever we can.

Ravishanker Kusuma said...

Good work. keep it up

Capt. Anup Murthy said...

Thank you Ravishanker.

Unknown said...

I would like enjoy every moment of Singapore.
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