i survived a rather harrowing incident today. i nearly got run over by a car. the story goes like this: i went to Kranji Camp this morning for my dental FFI. the thing about the camp is that its gate faces a huge, long four-laned road that has no traffic light except at its start and end. when i went to the camp i was afraid that i would be late so i jaywalked, and made it there safely. on my way out, i actually walked all the way to the traffic light because i thought that it might be safer. however, i was just so distracted by things many, many things on my mind (and the dog running around at the K-9 unit behind me) that i crossed the road without knowing that the light was still red. you see i assumed the light had turned in my favour because the traffic travelling in the direction on my right had stopped, but i had not expected that the traffic light for the other direction had not changed and so i walked without realizing. before i knew it, this light blue Hyundai just zoomed in front of me, and i got the shock of my life.
my first reaction was to be pissed because i thought that the car had run the red light, until i looked up and saw, to my horror, the traffic light for pedestrians was still red! i quickly walked backwards to safety (i still don't know why i walked backwards instead of just turning and walking normally). i was really quite shaken because i've never really been in a traffic incident before and i just knew that somehow i nearly got myself into a potentially fatal car accident. i said my prayers and thanked God for protection and went on.
it didn't occur to me until i got home that God had really intervened in that moment. had i walked any faster, i would probably be lying in a hospital bed right now. i really thank God for protecting me. and when i think back, i think either God has a terrific sense of humour or He's trying to scare me back to my senses. for the longest time i've been asking God for a new encounter, like nothing before. i wanted to see God present and real in my daily life, every single minute of it. and it was at that road junction, outside of Kranji Camp, that God revealed Himself to me in a whole new way. He was my protector, every second of every day of my life. it was quite awesome to know that He is always with me and He never leaves me nor forsakes me. Praise the Lord!
if cars don't kill me, then Indonesian farmers will attempt to do so. they've been setting fires to their forests like it's some massive Chinese New Year celebration gone wrong or something. the haze today is really, really bad. i can't see the sea from my room. the whole place is just hazy, hazy, hazy. it's sad that they are actually doing this because they have to survive, they have to clear land to plant crops, etc. it's sad because they don't have a choice, and they probably wouldn't be burning trees if they had some other way to earn a living. it's also sad because rainforests - that wonderful, lush, tropical, emerald terrain that sustains entire ecosystems, provides numerous resources and prevents global warming - are being ruthlessly condemned to incineration, like a hell on earth for trees.
it sucks because Singapore actually looks tremendously hazy right now. although the haze does lend a certain misty, London-esque, Genting-esque feel to the cityscape, you know that what you're breathing in is the end-product of on-fire Indonesian trees. apparently in Muar, Johor, the PSI is more than 400. if what we have in Singapore is 80, then i shudder to think what 400 might be. if it were up to me, i would fine the Indonesian government so many millions that they actually get scared and start cleaning up. i would then use the money collected from the fines to start sustainable farming practices in the Sumatran provinces. i would also use the money to buy fire-fighting equipment to put out any fires and i would crackdown on all the jokers who continue to burn trees like it's a joke, i would name them and shame them and throw them into a prison cell with a burning pile of paper and see if they choke to death. (ok, no i won't be so sadistic, but it's an idea)
it's interesting that when something is 'on fire', it also produces alot of smoke. funny how we always pray that we want to be 'on fire' for God, or say that a soccer player who scores many goals a player who is 'on fire'. could much of being 'on fire' be smoke? could producing fire mean that smoke is inevitable? so how much of passion is fire, and how much of it is smoke? how much of it is actually raw energy, and how much of it is an unwanted 'by-product'? interesting food for thought there...
i'm still preparing for the interview on Monday. totally wasted three days and now i'm getting to it, finally. i hope i'll be able to do well. should just go in there and turn off nervousness, turn on mouth and talk until i impress them enough to offer me a place. haha. c'mon mouth, don't fail me now.
