The Past is Present

The Past is Present
(Written by Alfred Dass and Cynthia Anne Pragasam)

Fifty years after leaving HM Naval Base, many of us are now living in an age where technology and artificial intelligence add a touch of convenience in our daily activities. We are also in the midst of grappling issues we never imagined we would face, such as food wastage, environmental degradation, identity crisis, spread of falsehoods and fake news, climate change, and of course, the ever uncertain Covid-19 pandemic.

Children Pulling Punches

Environment degradation is such an intractable mess that youth and children have involved themselves in the cause - perhaps they feel it is regarded as child's play. Their enthusiastic activism is a stark contrast to our 'tidak apa' carefree attitude during our childhood in Naval Base. However, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg believes ‘no one is too small to create an impact and change the world’.

She is hopeful that ‘climate chaos’ can be reversed if we understand the basics of climate change and facts of greenhouse gas emissions.  Veteran Naturalist Sir David Attenborough offers a simpler solution, which is ‘not to waste’.

Climate Cops

Following last month’s conclusion of COP26 (Conference of Parties), let’s revisit Naval Base and examine if our simple lifestyle unwittingly impacted environmental waste.

Climatologists are asking us to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle (3R) to combat climate change.

If we look back, we also Repaired, Repurposed, Redeemed and Recharged to meet our necessities.

Today, we  have learned that stored carbon and other greenhouse gases emitted from the burning of fossil fuel are released into the atmosphere, which causes dramatic changes the Earth’s climate. Therefore, reusing resources reduces the consumption of fossil fuels.

British housewives who ran the Thrift Shop also contributed to sustainability selling reused paraphernalia.  Today, well-heeled shoppers are encouraged to go Thrifting instead of Shopping to Save the Earth!

Another practice of reusing resources in Naval Base was passing text books down from the senior students to the junior ones. Children who did not have older siblings would book their neighbour’s text books in advance, sealing this arrangement throughout their academic journey.

Exercise books were traded with the kacang puteh (roasted peanuts coated with powdered sugar) seller in exchange for a page folded into a cone filled with treats! What’s more you may find a composition on the paper to copy. Hence, at an early age, we learnt not to rush to trash. We probably copied from our elders' habit of recycling; they used to stack up their used newspapers and sell them to our Karung Guni (Rag-and-Bone) man in exchange for a few cents or a couple of dollars.

Newspapers wrapped fish, meat and other essentials. Bulk quantities of grains, rice, flour and other staples were packed in paper bags.

Obliviously we were unaware that by reusing paper we were simultaneously saving trees, preserving our native biodiversity and cutting global warming. 

Recycling Bottles Cans

Drinks were sold in recycled bottles and hot drinks in used condensed milk tin cans. To incentivize returning emptied bottles, consumers were reimbursed 5-10 cents for each bottle. Today, heaps of plastic trash pollute oceans, rivers, lakes and the pristine beaches. It has been reported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) that 100 million marine animals die each year from plastic waste alone.

Eco-friendly Wrappers

Popular noodle dishes like Fried Kway Teow, Hor Fun, Hokkien Mee, (pictured), were served in opeh leaf sheaths from the palm tree; Chee Cheong Fan (flat rice noodles) dressed in sweet plum sauce and Rojak (a mixture of diced pineapples, green apples and turnip with pieces of deep fried you tiao, all tossed together with a special blend of sweet and spicy sauce and sprinkled with roasted diced peanuts) in conical green leaves; Ketupat, a steamed rice cake wrapped in an elegant weave of young palm leaves; Nasi Lemak (coconut rice with  fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and peanuts, sliced cucumbers and a spoonful of sambal chilli) Roti Prata (Indian flat bread), and Malay and Indian meals packed in banana leaves.

Do it Yourself (DIY)

We made kites and used starch or rice as glue and hand crafted our tops and bats. We organised neighborhood games such as Badminton, Football Tournaments and Sports Day. Batons were shaped out of bamboo and trophies minted from gold and silver cigarette foil. Inspired by these fledgling events, several home-grown champions went on to don national colours!

Chapteh feathers were handpicked from chicken stalls and the base made from discarded bicycle tubes which was also used as elastic bands for catapults; wheel rims to play hoop trundling. When the rain came, we came out to compete with paper boats and makeshift African tulip tree seed pods to compete in Boat Race. We were more thrilled getting soaked by the heavy downpour than seeing our boats speeding away in swirling waters in drains. Capsized boats were disqualified.

Food Waste

Tonnes of food are wasted daily in affluent societies, including Singapore. While in Naval Base, leftovers was collected by farmers from villages in 13-mile (Sembawang) and recycled as animal feed. Environmentalists say when food is wasted so are the resources like land, labor water and transportation needed to bring food to the table.  Then, the same resources are wasted disposing them. We now understand that by not wasting food, we also prevented indiscriminate dumping and reduced methane emissions.

Carbon-friendly

Today, we are told that burning fossil fuels accounts for most of the world's carbon emissions. In Naval Base, most employees commuted the carbon neutral way either by cycling or walking, thereby reducing their carbon footprint.

Cyclists - Kings of the Roads

Naval Base is probably among few places where heavy vehicles gave way to cyclists with courtesy and patience. Motorists inadvertently caught during peak hour, chugged behind multitudes of cyclists. Some dismayed motorists would pull alongside giving way to cyclists.

Fast forward to the modern age, cyclists are often edged to the wayside by flustered motorists. The ongoing discourse of cyclists blocking an entire lane continues like an unending journey.

Pedestrian-friendly

Life in Naval Base moved leisurely without traffic jams or snarling motorists to contend with.

Grey second-hand vehicles of public transporter Naval Base Bus Service ran fewer disruptions than our current transport systems. Bus drivers and conductors were unhurried and waited upon passengers. Today, seniors race against impatient bus drivers raring to whisk away from bus stops.

Nature-friendly

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike."  

- John Muir, The Yosemite

Though our homes were small and bursting with children - averaging five in a household - it was offset by the vast outdoors and rolling plains. Whereas today, the open has gradually eroded, giving way to the approaching concrete tsunami.

Children were nature’s friends and boldly ventured into forested areas with carefree abandon, rarely bitten by blood thirsty mosquitoes. Ironically after deforestation and living in a concrete jungle, we live in fear of the Aedes mosquitoes, which have invaded our homes to infect us with the dengue virus while feasting on our haemoglobin.

Fifty Years Ahead 

50 years ago, the British pulled out of Singapore. Did our pioneering Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew foresee global warming when he started Tree Planting Campaign in 1963? How about the Tree Planting initiated by Dr Goh Keng Swee in November 1971? 

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