Earthquake in Singapore.

Yesterday, as I sat before my computer, in the early evening, at home, something odd began to happen. My chair began to rock back and forth. Now, being quite a heavy man, I blamed, at once, the structural integrity of the chair and stood up, fearing that it was about to collapse beneath me.

I looked at the chair, as I stood, and it seemed OK. So I sat again, and again I felt it rock back and forth. It was then that I conceived the idea that, perhaps, the rocking was not due to my weight, but to the world itself: an earthquake was in progress.

To back up my belief, there was a knocking sound filling the building, which reminded me of the sound a waste chute in an earlier house had made during an earthquake: a rhythmic throbbing.

Today, I read in the newspapers that quite a big earthquake had struck Indonesia...7.6 on the Richter scale, which is really quite huge. This leads me to wonder: how safe is Singapore from earthquakes? Surely, if I could clearly feel this one, in Singapore, there must be a level of earthquake which would lead to damage in Singapore, even if it were centred on Indonesia? What if a much bigger earthquake struck nearby Indonesia...would buildings in Singapore then begin to fall?

I wonder this because Singaporeans are so used to being safe. Have the buildings here, been designed to withstand earthquakes? I did worry, yesterday, at all the shaking done to my home...could such shaking do any harm?

I ask these questions but I know we will not get any really solid answers. The authorities will always say: "It could not happen here"...until it does happen and then they will say: "We could not have known...".

It would be good to have information on what level of earthquake, at what distance from us, would cause harm in Singapore. Does anyone have that information? If so, please comment below.

My sympathies go out to those who may have been hurt, or killed, and their families, in Indonesia. At present, there is no substantial information about casualties. I wish people well, there.

Is Singapore an uncaring society?

A society reveals itself by the way it communicates to its people. So, it is with Singapore.

Yesterday, I stepped into a lift and I saw a notice on the wall. It was from the Housing Development Board and it had been widely distributed to communicate a safety message. The message was a simple one and explained in detail: windows, on high rise flats, have inherent dangers and must be protected against. A set of detailed precautions were given, advising on the maintenance and upkeep of windows to prevent a mishap.

This was "all well and good". However, there was something else which I noticed about the poster, which really perturbed me. You see, at the bottom of the notice, in large letters there was the slogan: "Your loved ones could be hurt". It was the only message on the poster that said, directly, that windows could hurt people. Think about it for a minute. What does it imply about the society to which it is addressed? For me it says something really, really, dark about Singapore. It says that, in the Government's opinion - for it is a notice from a branch of Government - that the people of Singapore will ONLY care about personal injury to their immediate relatives and loved ones. Stated, most clearly, by that slogan was the fact that an appeal to a Singaporean's general concern for their fellow man, would be ineffective. They had to make the poster personal. By saying: "Your loved ones could be hurt", they were saying that you, personally, could be affected by failing to maintain your windows. Clearly, it was thought that something more general like: "Someone could be killed", would have no effect on people's behaviour. Seeing those words, therefore, appalled me - for it told me most clearly, what the Government must know and think about its own people. It says that they JUST DON'T CARE.

Is there any evidence of this lack of care in daily life, here? Well, there is: plenty of it. Most relevantly, is that one not infrequently hears of things falling from windows, and sometimes people are hurt. Occasionally, such things are even reported - so it is not something which does not happen - it is a danger of life in a high-rise city. Yet, should such things happen? It should be a simple matter to ensure that there is nothing able to fall from a window - just don't put anything there. It is also a simple matter to ensure that the windows are safe: get them repaired if they start to look precarious. Yet, the Government here, knows that people don't take such precautions - that people don't think of the strangers down below who might be hurt or killed, by their negligence regarding windows. Hence, the notice that brings the danger closer to home - it is not strangers that might be hurt, but your own family.

It is true of course. One's own family could be hurt by ill-fitting, badly secured windows. Yet, in most countries, I feel it would have been sufficient to say: "Someone could be killed - take care of your windows." Something like that would work in any society in which people value all life, in which people care whether or not others come to harm by their actions or inactions. Clearly, Singapore is not such a place. If it was, the communication would have been different. It would have felt no need to bring it down to the level of the individual's loved ones.

In all, I found the poster rather chilling therefore. Do people really care so little for their fellow human beings, here?

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and six months, and Tiarnan, twenty-three months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)