The Last Kampong

Life is all about timing. Graduate at the wrong time and you could find it hard to get a job or the industry with your expertise has crashed. Ditto for the stock market, for somebody to make, someone else must have lost. Even so when buying a property. Your best may sometimes just not be enough. Being good is also sometimes not enough. 

Being first or last can also be due to timing. Being first in the queue for the latest mobile phone is your own doing or undoing. If you get one that explodes first then you have had it. There are other firsts and lasts that are beyond your control. If we criticise the younger generation now, there are some truths about it but had we been born at their time, would we not end up the same? 

Being the first Emperor and the Last Emperor is drastically different. The last emperor ended up as a gardener. No, an assistant gardener. As the PSLE results are released, I hope all parents take note there is always hope. The system requires us to get certain results but if you do not get it, no need to despair. There are many living examples of real people who do not and are still successful in life. Not only do I know many of them but I am one of them. I would not say I am successful but success are measured differently by different people. Mine is more demanding and exacting as it is not just your qualification in education that marketh a man. There are so much more than that. This part is just a small step. Many who came in by sampan have become greater than those who came in a luxury yacht. 

While, this subject has got nothing to do with me these days, it will still concern many of my friends and relatives and the future generation of Singaporeans. So I took to nature to see if any answer is blowing in the wind. If the world do not protect nature, the tropical and other rain forests and the oceans, where will you find hope for a cure say for cancer or other diseases? The high rise buildings and spanking shopping complexes are just like our highly educated people and nature is our soul. Without our souls, answers cannot be found.

Pockets of lush greenery could still be found in our little space here.

But where does this road leads to in future?

Some people do not like to be reminded of their past for whatever reasons. For me, the past was once our future and one day that future would soon be our past. Right here right now, the present is where we straddle between the past and the future. It is here that our past and future is being decided. Your actions and decisions now would one day soon be your past and future. Take very careful note of it. It is about time and space. 

And so I straddled into the past in the present and soon the future. I visited our Last Kampong at Lorong Buangkok, a village built somewhere in time in 1956. 

One look and you could imagine the slower pace of life and a carefree life of all the inhabitants. 

It brought back fond memories of my childhood where I have relatives who lived in a kampong at Bishan previously known as Peck Shan Teng. 

I also remember vividly my visits to my late uncle Lum's home in a kampong behind my paternal grandmother's home.

Lush greenery were the order of the day. 

Even down to the Buah Cherry tree. Grandma would use wooden planks and swan to a rifle or pistol shape and improvised a trigger that basically held down a pulled rubber band with a buah cherry as the bullet. 

Because this is the last kampong, they have actually made the paths better. Way back they do not even put granite gravels over mud path so it was really muddy when it rained.

The hibiscus is a large showy flower and its species represents many different nations as their national flower. They come in many colours like white, peach, pink, orange, purple and red. They were very common in all kampongs.

Would I rather live in a kampong in a house like this?

The folks still living here really do plan and did their work very well evidenced by the neat gravelled path with trees including sugar cane growing along.

I really do not mind living in a house like that except maybe with the installation of air-conditioners for hot days.

Even less glamorous ones like this one will do.

You are always surrounded by trees.

In kampongs, you can build sheds as you need. You can keep up with projects, your body exercised and your minds nimble.

You can dig drains, build trench or other systems in case of a zombie attack.

The entire area is your garden. 

Just like Eden's fauna and flora. 

In a kampong, when aliens visit, they know.

We are unsure if the last kampong will be gone in due time.

Whatever it is. Time and tide waits for no man. Enjoy the journey and its moment while it lasts. After all, no matter who we are, we are just too insignificant as we pass through this world.  

Like a blip. 

Cherish it while the heart still beats for all good things shall come to an end and you won't remember what you were fighting for the last time.