Apathy

I learned about Sumatra's powerful earthquake when D came home last night telling me about it. His office building had shaken quite badly.

I checked out the news this morning and saw the report (in italic below) that had me shaking my head in disbelief. Singaporeans "screaming and shouting"??? I hardly felt a thing! And I live right in the heart of the business district.

Ok, actually, I did sense something - when I was taking a break from my screen to transport my dry laundry from the machine to my walk-in wardrobe. As I was about to step back out into my bedroom, I heard strange sounds coming from the upper shelf of the wardrobe (my home is so quiet I can hear a pin drop).

I looked up and saw the wooden clothes hangers on both D's and my side knocking into one another, as if someone was playing with them. At first I thought it was Keish that was playing and shaking the structure (which is highly unlikely coz it's a really sturdy structure!).

But Keish was out in the living room, and Alberto was standing right next to me, staring at exactly the same thing/ phenomenon that I was staring at.

The next thought that crossed my mind: " Is 7th month over (it's what the chinese call the "hungry ghost month" where your ancestors come back to visit you for a month...well, something along that line)? Well it's gotta be since the burning (of incense, paper money, paper houses, paper handphones, paper limousines, paper DOMESTIC HELPERS, etc etc) has stopped..."

And then I thought maybe it was the strong wind.

But my home is sealed 24 hours a day (internal ventilation system) and there's never wind.

I stood there thinking for about 5, maybe 10 mins (I really don't know, it seems like a pretty long time, coz I was just standing there, doing nothing).

I looked at Al, Al looked at me curiously (Al's always interested in whatever I'm doing - PERFECT LOVER)...

And then I decided.

What the heck, if I can't explain it, it's not worth my time.

I went back to my charts, and got so fixated I never felt the building move (I live on the 27th floor - according to D, I should have at least felt a little nauseous, which I didn't. But that was when I figured out what had moved my heavy wooden hangers!).

Anyway, D got home and told me about the tremors they felt in the office. D always downplays things, so I suppose there must have been some kind of commotion.

Then, we got down to talking about how terrible life has been for the people of Sumatra.

That evolved into a discussion on the hundreds of millions of landmines that are buried across the world - Vietnam, Cambodia, Angola, Afghanistan, and I asked why people choose to live in areas with landmines beneath them.

"Honey, they didn't choose to live there. They have no choice coz they are poor."

Such a heavy after-dinner topic.

10 minutes later, I was back at my workstation waiting for market to open in 5 minutes. In a matter of minutes, I was back in my sheltered world.

Ok, as I'm writing, I can feel the building I live in moving from side to side. I'm hearing sirens from fire engines. My breakfast's hardly touched and my blueberry juice's placed right next to my laptop and I was concerned it was going to spill....

Yes, that's the only thought that crossed my mind. Then I realize that I've become "singaporeanized" without my knowing.

HORRORS.

Sumatra's just been hit really badly again (if I can feel it, it's bad) and all I could think about was blueberry juice spilling over at my workstation.

News article on the quake, which I extracted from yahoo news this morning:

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans island—wide literally felt the earth move under their feet as tremors shook the island in areas as diverse as Redhill in central Singapore to the northeast of the country like Pasir Ris.

This, after a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hit Indonesia.

Singapore’s Meteorological Services confirmed that the earthquake hit at about 6.15 pm this evening in the waters off Southern Sumatra about 530 kilometres from Singapore.

Minutes later, MediaCorp’s news hotlines started ringing as Singaporeans reported feeling tremors that lasted anywhere between 30 seconds and a few minutes.

Police and SCDF said they received more than 150 calls about the quake.

Videos sent in by viewers showed chandeliers swaying, as were other objects.

The calls came from across the island — Ang Mo Kio in the central , Marine Parade in the east, Punggol in the northeast and Raffles Place, in the central business district.

Callers said that some workers in the Suntec area and Changi Business Park were evacuated.

One man said: "There were a lot of office people on the roadside. We felt it for about five to ten minutes."

Others said their neighbours were screaming and shouting.

Rajakumar Choppa who works at Expo Changi Business Park, said: “Around 6 pm, we felt some kind of a building shake. I felt it three times actually and then we all stood up and rushed downstairs because there was some fire alarm in the building.

“When we got downstairs, there was a crowd. We were all watching and not knowing what was happening. I was able to see the building literally shaking.”

Callers also reported jams in the Causeway area as the bridge was shaking.

Experts MediaCorp spoke to said the situation was bad.

Professor Kerry Sieh, professor of Geology, Earth Observatory of Singapore, NTU, said: "It’s definitely getting worse. The earthquake sequence began in 2000 with a 7.9 about 800 km away from the south of Singapore. You haven’t felt this big of a sequence of earthquakes that is many large earthquakes for at least 175 years."

A tsunami warning was initially issued after the quake but later withdrawn. — CNA/vm