Happy National Day neighbours and friends!
While the flats here in Corinne May's song are not of Tiong Bahru's vintage, Kampong Arang dates from the 60s when we underwent the heroic effort to rehouse our fellow citizens from tenements, slums and squatter shacks.
The simple architecture may not be considered much to shout about when compared to today's positively gleaming HDBs, but it is nice to see that these pioneer flats being celebrated, if nothing else, as a place where we started, as a place that evokes a feeling of home.
It is also good to be reminded of the role of the common-corridor - the five foot way of our Tiong Bahru flats - that was inherited from Raffles' planning rules, and transformed/brought into high-rise housing from the 60s to the 80s - that is is a place where community formation - as a result of friendships being formed - has a better chance of taking place. And its many small community/ies that come together to make a Nation.
Hopefully one day, we will have an equally nice ND song set in Tiong Bahru!
Majulah Singapura!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment