where can you find this s'pore emblem?

blogger secondshot - whom i have yet to meet - showed more than one singapore emblem in a recent blog posting. he had chanced upon one of the emblems while out gathering materials (pictures) for his posting on the war memorial park. i think i have seen the same emblem when i was a school boy.

another emblem which i am familar with is the one at the gate leading to the former mt emily swimming pool. if i am not wrong, it is still there. this also appears on the same posting.

you can imagine my excitement - yes, senior citizens also can get excited - when i saw the singapore emblem (top two pictures) when i was exploring an old part of singapore. i have walked past this gate several times in the past but i had not noticed the emblem until that day.

senior citizens do not need to fly here and there to keep themselves going; they only need to get up and keep moving around, instead of facing the wall. there are so many places in singapore which you can visit and re-visit to learn about our heritage and uncover 'new' things.

here are the quiz questions (based on the top 2 pictures):

1 where do these gates lead to?

2 what was the original use of the main building (not visible in the picture)?

3 who subsequently occupied the building?

Mmm...Kuching Food!

what we used to wipe our backside

today's toilet paper comes in a roll and it can be made from different types of paper; they come in different colour, different texture and some are even perfumed or medicated. some 'luxury' toilet papers are quilted or riffled. i have also come across toilet rolls decorated with dolphins or cartoon characters. during our kampong days, toilet paper was a luxury item.

what then did we use to clean our backside in the past.

in those night-soil carriers days, we had not started using toilet paper that came in a roll. we cut old newspapers into square or rectangle pieces and use them to do the job. they were held together by a length of wire that was pierced through one corner of the stack. when we had to do a quick job, we did not even bother to get the ready-cut ones, we just grabbed some old papers and headed for the latrine. sometimes we collected the soft tissue-like papers that were used for wrapping fruit and used them for the same purpose. one advantage of using old newspaper was that you had something to read while engaged in your business.

when we were out in the belukars catching spiders and we had an 'emergency', we would use the most convenient thing found around us - the leaves of plants - to do the cleaning job. leaves might not do a thorough job but it was better than using earth or sand.

we had a few indian neighbours in the kampong. i noticed that whenever they visited the 'jamban', they would carry a mug or jug of water. i was to learn later that most indians in those days did not use any paper, much less toilet paper, to clean up after the business. instead they used water to wash their backside. actually, water does a more thorough job than wiping with paper. a combination of both is considered the best way of cleaning up the mess.

now that i live in a flat with modern sanitation, what do i use? at home i prefer to use water. when i am outside and i need to use the public toilet, i usually have no choice but to use toilet paper.

another scare in the 60s

apart from the oily man scare, there was another scare in the 60s and 70s that inadvertently kept children at home, especially after dark. this was the rumour circulating around the island that young children had been kidnapped and killed and their heads used for supporting the foundation of some bridge that was being built.

this could have been attributed to the old indian and chinese beliefs that the river-god needed appeasing when man attempted to interrupt its flow by building a bridge across it. to the indians and the chinese, securing the favour of the god could be obtained by making some human sacrifices.

not only were children scared stiff by this story of human heads being needed to ensure the successful completion of a bridge, parents of young children were equally scared. many of them accompanied their young ones to schools and some even stayed to wait until dismissal time so that they could see to their children home safely.

according to my friend, there was yet another belief, this time involving the successful completion of buildings, especially tall buildings. it seemed that during the construction they had to bury 7 types of metal in the ground. burying inanimate objects was nothing frightening as compared to taking away the lives of small children.

incidentally, talking about bridges, there are 4 colour bridges in singapore - white bridge (pek kio), red bridge (ang kio thau, keng lee road), black bridge (orr kio, balestier road) and green bridge (chey kio, ord bridge). i think white bridge was the one along kampong java road, leading to dorset road. there is also orr kio thau (havelock road/ganges road).

oily man scare 50s to 70s

with oil spills everywhere - in the gulf, china and india, we may see the re-appearance of the orang minyak - the oily man.

in the days where street lamps were few and far in between and where, in most out of town places, electricity was supplied by generators which shut down just before midnight, these conditions and environment were suitable for the oily man to operate. under the cover of darkness and smearing himself with black oil, he rendered himself almost invisible. the oil on his body also made it difficult for anyone to get a good hold on him. i believe the oily man was a normal human out to take advantage of the irrational fear of people at that time.

i am quite surprised that my blogger friend victor koo has not blogged about this.....the oily man. the area where he once lived was where the oily man made his second appearance in the 50s. the scare in the 5os first started in the area near great world city and it soon spread to middle road, victoria street and queen street area. maybe he was too young then to be frightened by the phantom prowler.

for five nights, large crowds gathered outside st anthony's convent trying to catch a glimpse of the elusive oily man. he had been seen on the roof of the building. the crowd was so big that it caused traffic jams and the police had to be called in to try to disperse the mob. however, it did not capture the interest of everyone. a friend who lived near middle road read about it in the papers; he could not be bothered to join the excited crowd. even when the police declared the 'oily man' a hoax, people continued to gather in the evening.

very soon, the sightings of the oily man were reported all over singapore, from chinatown to changi. at telok kurau, angry villagers chased a dark man clad only in blue swimming trunks. another time one man was found naked crouching beside a hedge. he carried his clothes in a bundle. there were a few reported cases where girls were attacked by a man smeared with black oil and wearing only a pair of swimming trunks.

another oily man - it could be the same man - molested a malay woman at kampong alexandra. the woman screamed and the oily man while trying to make his escape was hit on the head with a parang wielded by one of the villagers. however, he still managed to escape capture.

at zion road, the oily man was seen dancing naked on the rooftop. when he was chased, he threw stones at his pursuers.

over at clementi estate, the oily man was declared by some to have supernatural powers. according to one claim he could remain invisible, especially to men, or transform himself into a dog. 1000 police and soldiers were deployed to capture the oily man. it was so serious that they were given orders to shoot on sight.

he was seen more than once at royal air force (raf) changi. the terrified housewives of the base airmen barred their doors and bolted their windows to keep the oily man out.

actually the 50s was not the first time singapore heard of the oily man. there were also reports of the oily man earlier, in the 30s. there were also two malay films based on the oily man. the first was 'orang minyak' (oily man) and the second 'serangan orang minyak' (the oily man strikes again.) sporadic sightings of the oily character were reported in the 60s and even in the early 70s.

over in malaya, there were a number of cases in which young girls and housewives were either molested or even raped by the oily man.