WHY PLANT TREES?

Ever wonder why Singapore is known as a Garden City?

Why would Singapore go around planting trees?
After all, maintaining a Garden City is very expensive.

Well, here’s the answer —

if you were to look at Singapore from the top, Singapore resembles a crab, with its mouth the Singapore river and its back facing Malaysia. We all know that cooked crab (that means dead
crab) is red, the colour of barren ground. But a live crab is basically a dark shade of green. So,by planting trees, you make Singapore look green and not red, and therefore alive.

TWO PROMINENT DISTRICTS

Lee Kuan Yew runs Tanjung Pagar while Goh Chok Tong is in Marine Parade.
If you look at Singapore as a crab again, these two locations are situated at the positions where the claws of a crab will be. We know the strongest parts of a crab are its claws, so there they are.

HOW SINGAPORE WAS CONQUERED

To kill a crab, you stick the chopstick at the side of the crab…which is exactly where the Japanese attacked and conquered Singapore.

KALLANG RIVER CLEAN-UP

Why clean up a river that spells different memories for many Singaporeans and was one of the reasons for our prosperity in the early years?

During the 80’s recession, we had just completed the Benjamin Sheares
Bridge… which happens to suspend over the Singapore river, the mouth of the crab. This is as good as tying the mouth of the crab, thus choking it which explains the recession. In order to get out of it, one way was to clean up the river so that the mouth is clean and wealth can flow in without obstruction. Sounds unbelievable? But it seems logical, doesn’t it?

Here’s another thing for you to think about whether you believe it or not. Please reach into your pocket and search for a one-dollar coin, and take a good look at it. It is round, no doubt, but it also has a unique Octagonal design – which is an imporant symbol in Chinese Geomancy or feng shui.
This is where the story of this coin begins. On the island of Singapore lived a very influential man named Lee. He is very particular about feng shui, i.e. man’s balance with nature. There is a particular day and also time of day to inaugurate any important event. There is also a particular colour of dress, when it comes to important occasions, and so on. He has a feng shui mentor – a famous monk, a particular Venerable who died recently. Lee would seek the advice of this Venerable, whenever he
had to make an important decision.

The one-dollar coin came into circulation at the time of the MRT construction on the island (check the date if you don’t believe me). The story goes that the Venerable had advised Lee that MRT tunnelling work would be bad for the feng shui of the island, its prosperity, etc. Firm however on pushing ahead with the project, Lee asked if there was anything that could be done to circumvent the bad feng shui. “Yes”, replied the Venerable, “but it may be impossible to implement”. Said Lee to the Venerable – please speak. The Venerable then said that EVERY household on this island must have or must display a ‘pak kwa’ or symbolic octagonal (8-sided) object. Oh no, there would definitely be racial riots. How could Lee force every household to have a ‘pak kwa’ then at home? Said the wise Lee – I have an idea. I know how to make EVERYBODY like to have as many ‘pak kwas’ as possible and so, our one-dollar coin was born.

But then, the economy didn’t do quite as well as expected after the circulation of the one-dollar coin. Remember the ’85/86 recession??

So the Honorary Venerable was consulted again. He said that whilst the one-dollar coin did symbolise the pak kwa, it was of no use if everyone had it in his pocket and failed to DISPLAY it. So the next novel idea was born the ROAD TAX LABEL If you recall, it used to be round and now, it’s OCTAGONAL and it is DISPLAYED. Maybe now, you think this explains the many years of booming economy Singapore had been experiencing. However, with the recent turmoil in the region and now that the Venerable* is no longer around, what shall we do next? Know any feng shui experts?

By the way, the monk mentioned is the ex-head of a temple. When he passed away several years ago, Bishan Park was born because his temple was not allowed to be blocked by any HDB flats.