Hazy Days are Here Again

There is not a lot going on in the news in Singapore. With out politics and sports to discuss, the pickings are often a bit slim. But we do have some "national" news these days.

Remember how we used to have a view of the ocean and Indonesia in the distance? 

Not so much anymore. 

Grey haze is everywhere! 

Apparently the haze is caused by fires burning in Sumatra and the smoke is floating its way on over to Singapore. This happens every year, to varying degrees. There are measurement standards, and when it gets really bad, they issue health alerts and suggest people stay inside. So while I was praying for snow days as a child, children across Singapore and Malaysia are praying for haze days. 

Its gross- I'll give you that. But it is ALL people are talking about here. It is almost like people are so deprived for something noteworthy to discuss they are hopping on the haze-train and focusing all their attention to this new environmental issue. 

The blame is all going to Indonesia- but I think Singapore should probably take a look around its country and take note of the 100000 construction cranes and dirty construction sites and wonder if maybe, just maybe, some of the blame our our declining air quality is coming from internal sources. Exhibit A is below. We used to have a lovely grassy park behind our condos, now we have a massive dirt producing hole in the ground. 

Oh and did I mention that they do construction from 7am to 10pm, 7 days a week? Or at least, that is the official stance, they really do construction basically 24-hours a day because they would rather get fines for working in restricted hours than lose money getting behind schedule on the build. Oh yea, and this madness and noise is conveniently located right next to our pool. So long relaxing days at the pool!  Now do you think  all the dirt in the air is really from Indonesia? Questionable....