The first earthquake effect was felt in Singapore at 11:50am. I was on my way out shopping. So I missed the whole Singapore doing the "disco". The second one was felt at 2pm and I was in my son's school doing library duty. I missed that too. I don't envy those who felt it because the after-effect of the 'feeling' can last for a while. I have enough of it when I was staying at my last estate. We practically felt it every weekend. I get to know my neighbors because of all these evacuation while gathering at the car park. LOL.
The New Paper published an article written by it's columnist:
Earthquake?
Just save the Prada shades
By Edwin Yeo
March 11, 2007
LAST Tuesday, I witnessed the courage of Singaporeans.
For those of you who live at the bottom of the well (or in the east), you might not have felt the tremors which shook buildings in the CBD area as a result of the Sumatra earthquake.
I was in one such building at the time, and it was the first time I felt the ground under my feet move, in all my 39 years.
After looking around to see if Zhang Ziyi had accidentally walked into my office, I realised what it was when my colleagues screamed: 'Earthquake!'
It was then that I witnessed the bravery of my fellow citizens.
There was no panic exit or stampede as all the other tenants on my floor came out of their office.
Emergency procedures (learnt from disaster movies) demand that in the event of an earthquake, stairs should be used.
But not us brave souls who laugh in the face of danger.
No, we did what all fearless Singaporeans do - squeezed into the elevators.
At that point we had no idea if it was an earthquake or if the building was collapsing. But did we care?
Not even a little bit.
SARDINES IN A CAN
We just squeezed into the lifts like sardines in a tin. So calm were we that when the lift doors opened on the floor below us, my office manager had the presence of mind to tell them: 'Wait for the next lift! Don't overload this one.'
That made a lot of sense.
We naturally didn't want the lift to fall down the shaft, or worse, get stuck.
That was calm thinking in the face of disaster.
As we came out of the lifts, no one ran for their lives.
We were so unafraid that even though many of us thought the building might be collapsing, we just hung around in the lobby. Some of my female colleagues even said that it was a good opportunity to 'check out all the cute guys who work in the building'.
The rest of us, who didn't enjoy being checked out, decided to enter a cafe at the foot of another swaying building to get a cuppa.
After an hour, our building was certified safe and we headed back in.
This time, only one other colleague and I came back, while the rest did the reassuring task of buying lunch.
Five minutes after I sat down, the building swayed again. Similar scenes happened and I tried calling my lunch-buying colleagues, telling them not to return.
The female colleague, who I managed to get through to, said: 'Oh, can you go back in and get my bag for me?'
But I couldn't do that as I had forgot my access card.
So, while all of us left the building, my lunch-buying colleague and a friend of hers had the guts to go another way. There was a pair of Prada sunglasses waiting to be rescued.
They didn't even make a quick dash. While my colleague retrieved her sunglasses, her friend decided that it was a great time to go to the toilet since it would be empty.
Thirty years of Civil Defence training later, I can safely say that us Singaporeans are truly ready in the event of an emergency.
This is so true about Singaporeans that it's not funny. I feel that Singaporean has become complacent. We always rely on the government to do all the jobs for them. We are so spoon-fed that if the government doesn't say "evacuate", we will not do anything.
Like the CNY that just passed. I was out shopping for melon seeds. One of my favorite tidbits from CNY. I asked the shop vendor where did he get his melon seeds. He said "China." Before I could say anything, he said "Don't worry. This is Singapore. Very safe. The ministry is very strict." I guessed he said this to reassure his customers because we are all quite skeptical about the hygiene/safety level of Chinese products.
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