Friday, December 28, 2007

Depleting the World's Resources

All the current tenants have to move to other premises.

Most of the tenants will move to Tekka Mall




The Concourse , a magnificent building - to be taken down!



I decided to go to Beach Road to book my bus ticket to Penang. It cost me S$61 for a twenty seater bus. However, if I were to book just a day later, ie. 1st February, the ticket would be double in price eg. S$120! Amazing how transport companies try to capitalise on the Chinese New Year Celebration! After purchasing my ticket, I decided to go to the Concourse to buy some gift wrappers. To my surprise, I learnt that all the tenants have to vacate in a few months as the whole building will be taken down! Enbloc!

Enbloc! The word with a double-edged sword. A dreaded word for some but music to the ears for the one who reaps huge profits. For me, where enbloc is concerned I am happy if the building is really old. As an agent, while enbloc implies a higher selling price for my clients, and hence a higher commission for me, yet I still feel sad, especially if the building is still quite new....less than 20 years. Look at my photos. Does not Concourse look quite beautiful and new.? The steel rims and banisters still look bright and shining! The design is quite unique and spectacular, one of its only kind in Singapore!

When I was in Taipeh and Taichung, I was surprised to find many old buildings still intact. Though Taiwan does not have many new buildings, yet the country is quite clean because the people are quite disciplined in their disposal of garbage. Recyling is quite stringently carried out, with everyone happily participating in this drive to conserve and preserve, and by and large, help to save the earth. In Singapore, buildings come down faster than you can sing, "We wish you a merry Christmas!"

Of course, we can understand that Singapore has limited land, and hence buildings must go enbloc to make way for even taller buildings. But surely, some things can be done to preserve some of more unusual architectural designs.

I hope that the demolishers will attempt to recycle the debris of steel, glass, stone, sand, wood, etc.

I am not an authority but somehow, I feel that it is not right to just build and demolish, buy something and make it into a white elephant, and in brief just waste, waste, waste! I remember that in the Bible it was written that after Jesus had fed the crowd, He instructed his 12 disicples to go around to pick up the remnants of food which filled 12 baskets. If Jesus, being the miracle working God who could turn two fish and five loaves to feed a multitude, was so careful about wastage, who are we to think that we could just throw, discard and waste as if there is no tomorrow?

Alas there are many more tomorrows! Let us all do our little part to rethink and recycle and to help save the earth, so that the world will still be beautiful and abundant for our younger generations.

Gan Chau


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