^ Someone sent me this cute picture.
The horrors of the last weeek when the entire Singapore was shrouded in a thick layer of smog due to forest fires raging in Indonesia. The Pollution Standard Index (PSI) reaching hazardous levels. N95 masks, air-purifiers, air-coolers flew off the shelves in the pharmacies, supermarkets, clinics and hospitals. All of a sudden, everyone was hunting high and low for a N95 mask or an air-purifier.
Instead of the stock markets and prices of COEs, everyone was monitoring the PSI.
“Please Stop (the forest fires), Indonesia!”
^ This was the view from my workplace early in the week.
^ Visibility plunged a day later. In some parts of the CBD, you could hardly see anything more than 100m ahead. Other parts of the CBD looked like a sandstorm had swept through the area.
^ By the time the PSI hit the peak, you could see almost nothing from the windows. People were really panicking.
The haze receded today. We are hoping that it will stay that way going forward, that the Indonesian authorities are doing something sustainable to keep the forest fires down, and the wind direction is in our favor. It was a huge relief to see a shade of blue in the skies in the afternoon today. This view from my living room window looked normal. Armageddon had come and gone.
Clean, fresh air. Clear blue skies. Sunshine. White fluffy clouds. Something that I have always thought we had in abundance. I never though we could lose something so basic within a matter of hours. I will never take for granted fresh air and clear blue skies again.
