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Freaky weather even by New England standards. I had to stop by the nearby Starbucks (which I am not to fond of, overpriced coffee and all) just to seek refuge from the rain (rain!!) and the chilly wind. And this is supposed to be summer! Had I known, I would have packed more warm clothes instead of shorts and t-shirts. So now I am safely esconded in my charming room (with a view) in a charming flat in charming South End, trying to soothe my chilled sensibilities (and soaked feet) with EBTG.
On a stopover in Washington, I had to re-claim my bags and re-check them in. Must be some premonition, but I stared a bit longer at my luggage as it was being loaded on the conveyer belt (like I was not seeing it ever again). I landed in Boston but apparently, my bags were still stuck in Washington. Good thing I had the foresight of packing a day's worth of clothes in my carry-on. (Yes, this advice is for anybody flying any US airlines requiring connecting flights).
Early the following day, I called up the lost baggage help line to check if my bags were found. It was, but only after finding out that the staff taking calls was Filipino, based in a call centre in a suburb of Manila, helping me figure out what happened to my bags in Boston, from a flight from Singapore. At 7 am and after a gruelling 20 hour flight, it was bit too much for my brain (uncaffeinated, at that) to grasp but it sure was bewildering.
Unlike some people, I've never been scared of flying. Maybe I should.
Speculations on the final few minutes of Air France 477 (as confirmed to have likely have happened) is nothing less than chilling.
At 11 p.m. (10 p.m. EDT), pilot Marc Dubois sent a manual signal saying he was flying through an area of "CBs" -- black, electrically charged cumulonimbus clouds that carry violent winds and lightning.
At 11:10 p.m., a cascade of horrific problems began.
Automatic messages relayed by the jetliner indicate the autopilot had disengaged, suggesting Dubois and his two co-pilots were trying to thread their way through the dangerous clouds manually.
A key computer system had switched to alternative power and controls needed to keep the plane stable had been damaged.
An alarm sounded, indicating the deterioration of flight systems.
At 11:13 p.m., more automatic messages reported the failure of systems to monitor air speed, altitude and direction. Control of the main flight computer and wing spoilers also failed.
The last automatic message, at 11:14 p.m., indicated complete electrical failure and a massive loss of cabin pressure -- catastrophic events, indicating that the plane was breaking apart and plunging toward the ocean.
Plane mishaps have been to know to happen most frequently during take-off and landing. Air disasters occuring while mid-air are almost unheard of. Imagine you were watching some nutty movie, laughing your head off when suddenly all hell breaks loose.
Scary, man.
Unlike Singapore news that is almost always fixated on all boom, doom, and stale gloom, news from Manila has always been irreverently irrelevant you'd think nothing extraordinary happens at all. For the past few weeks, Manila has been fixated on the surfacing of several sex videos involving a doctor/celebrity/model and several starlets. If you think those photos of Edison Chen were scandalous (or yummy, depending on your persuasion), these videos are on a different-queerclick league (NSFW) of its own.
In keeping with the irrelevant theme, even lawmakers have been happily dissecting the sex videos using precious senate time - all in the "aid of legislation."; though for whatever form of legislation lawmakers intend to use the information escapes me. So the culprit was hauled into the August halls of the Senate, and made to answer questions like - what software did you use? where did you place the camera? Not surprisingly, those who were doing the grilling were actors themselves. (Finally, they are tackling something that they are comfortable with. Leave the heavy stuff like poverty to the serious legislators).
So while the world is worried about the economy, North Korea and H1N1, Filipinos think that a sex video takes precedence. And that, my friends, explains why the Philippines is where it is in the global economy.
The curse of Monday mornings is back.
You know... when you swat the alarm clock in the morning, and the alarm clock swats you back, apart from the incessant meowing (and biting) from the Chairman to tell you that his breakfast is due.
Yes. I am back to work and the first week was a mad rush of keeping up, not to mention having to still keep up with the backlog from school.
Clinic was worse. Last week was MRI week. I hate MRI week as there is bound to be somebody not responding to treatment. I had to break the bad news to 2 people; one was a 27 year old guy with a young family.
There are a few things to be thankful about. My trip to Japan pushed through, thought that too had it's share of near mishaps. I miscalculated train schedules and almost didn't make it to board the plane for Singapore. I arrived at the airport 30 friggin minutes before flight time. The counter lady was kind enough to hastily check me in (even forgot to even check my passport), accompanied me all the way to the immigration counter, and I arrived at the boarding gate 5 minutes before boarding time (with time even to buy some stuff from duty-free). Oh. I suppose it helped as well that I've ungraded myself to business. I wonder if the counter lady would have been as helpful had I been in coach.
Come July and I'm headed to the US... on United A. I'm cringing just thinking about it.
So finally the elusive Mas Salamt has been caught in Malaysia.
"He was reportedly captured in southern Malaysia, just across the Johor Strait from Singapore, in an area that once effectively served as the headquarters for Jemaah Islamiyah."
If I recall, somebody declared in the past that Mas Salamat should still be still in Singapore because he has not been sighted elsewhere.
Border checks so tight, even the H1N1 virus couldn't enter Singapore.
Maybe H1N1 should have used a floatation device. Nobody in Singapore will ever think of that.
Officially, we are in pandemic alert phase 5 - a full blown global flu pandemic is imminent.
So what does this actually mean? It means that a flu virus that was previously only contagious between animals have found it's way to humans and that these humans have been documented to be spreading this virus across 2 continents (or 2 geographical WHO areas).
But what is important to note here is that nowhere in this classification does it say that the virus is lethal.
All it tells us is that it is contagious, the same way any flu bug jumps from one colleague to another in the office. In order to find out the lethality of the virus, one has to find out the case fatality rate which is the number of fatalities occuring as a result of infection (SARS had a case fatality rate between 12 and 71%. Unlike SARS, a person is infectious even before the onset of fever). From collected reports, the current case fatality rate for H1N1 is 2.3%. But according to reports on the ground, poor access to health care may be the real culprit.
Even now, the Mexican government is finding out that a number of the fatalities were not caused by H1N1. As I said in a earlier post, most people who got H1N1 got better by themselves, without hospitalisation. Some who had the flu didn't even know it was H1N1 until they were tested. The virus can mutate to a more virulent strain but that won't be happening so soon, particularly as the northern hemisphere moves into the summer season. Like vampires, this virus cannot withstand prolonged daylight exposure. So yes, this current bogeyman is from Monsters, Inc and voiced by the lovable John Goodman.
That said, I am a bit baffled that the pandemic alert 5 has been used to justify radical measures to contain the virus. In fact, the WHO has already said that there is no point in containing the virus and measures should be focused instead on mitigating the effects of infection.
Truth be told, unless a vaccine is out soon, all of us will be infected whether you like it or not. It may not be within the next 3 months, but maybe 1 to 5 years down the road, after which you develop immunity - just like when you develop immunity to a flu strain until a new mutated strain comes along.
So how does that leave all these virus containment exercises? Like putting all the 200 hotel guests under quarantine? Temperature checks at every corner? (I wanted to go to the gym today but was deterred by the long queue waiting to have their temperature checked) Visa restrictions for Mexicans? Quarantine all Mexicans? What happens when the US numbers overtake Mexico? (The US is, after all, so much bigger than Mexico) Do we quarantine everybody coming from the US? We will need more than the Aloha Chalet to hold them all. One thing is for sure, all these exercises has done nothing to contain anxiety.
I sooo need to be convinced that this is not just a show for those who bungled SARS.
If there are any lingering doubts about the power of new media, one just had to review the role it played at the conclusion of the AWARE saga yesterday.Weeks before, Singaporean bloggers had a field day dissecting, de-constructing and spinning conspiracy theories about the AWARE takeover. Emails supposedly confidential (and understanbly ignored by the mainstream press) found its way to the net. During the EGM yesterday, it was Twitter that was on centre stage. Twits (is that what they call them?) provided a second by second account of what was happening in real time. And since mainstream media was initially barred from entering the premises, twitter was the only source of real time information for those who were not there. Later on, people started uploading video clips on youtube. Go see how the ringleader screamed "you have no repect for your elders" or "I am on page 73." It was such a reversal of roles that guards had to stand by to prevent the tigers from pouncing on her.
To be sure, the ex-exco was already dealt a deathblow when the fundamentalist agenda was pried out of them, but it was new media that fanned the flames and mobilised the forces of the old guard. It is the collective power of individuals, busy typing away on their phones or their laptops flooding the invisible broadband highway with blog entries, forum comments and twits. These are the kingmakers of the future. But just like in any environment where the voice of the majority becomes the word of truth, the truth may not always be the truth but a matter of values or opinion. God forbid the day when new media becomes nothing more than mob rule gone legit.
The first H1N1 flu joke I've heard.
Over dinner last night, some friends mentioned that Dubai is not faring any better than Singapore, if not worse. After all, Dubai is the other self-styled adult Disneyland, fabled paradise in the desert and man-made islands with multi-million price tags; only less well managed.
Googling Dubai led me to this article in the UK Independent. It's rather long but if you are interested in the parallels between Dubai and Singapore, this article is an eye opener.
Here, off the coast of Dubai, developers have been rebuilding the world. They have constructed artificial islands in the shape of all planet Earth's land masses, and they plan to sell each continent off to be built on. There were rumours that the Beckhams would bid for Britain. But the people who work at the nearby coast say they haven't seen anybody there for months now. "The World is over," a South African suggests.
All over Dubai, crazy projects that were Under Construction are now Under Collapse. They were building an air-conditioned beach here, with cooling pipes running below the sand, so the super-rich didn't singe their toes on their way from towel to sea.
The projects completed just before the global economy crashed look empty and tattered. The Atlantis Hotel was launched last winter in a $20m fin-de-siecle party attended by Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan and Lily Allen. Sitting on its own fake island – shaped, of course, like a palm tree – it looks like an immense upturned tooth in a faintly decaying mouth. It is pink and turreted – the architecture of the pharaohs, as reimagined by Zsa-Zsa Gabor. Its Grand Lobby is a monumental dome covered in glitterballs, held up by eight monumental concrete palm trees. Standing in the middle, there is a giant shining glass structure that looks like the intestines of every guest who has ever stayed at the Atlantis. It is unexpectedly raining; water is leaking from the roof, and tiles are falling off.
The similarities can be unnerving. While I think it will not be that bad in Singapore, it gives credence to fears of what may go wrong in Singapore if this recession doesn't let up soon.
