Weapons of Mass Destruction

Over the pass few days, men with chainsaws and excavators have been clearing a path of about 10m wide just outside the fence of our kampung. Here are the before and after photos

BEFORE


AFTER

It kind of reminds me of the scene in Lord of the Rings, where the trees are cut down by the Dark Lord in Mordor. (Anyway Mr Brown already calls Punggol Mordor). And we are in the most ulu part of Punggol. There have been taxi drivers who commented as they drive down the road that leads to the 17th Avenue that they didn't know such roads with jungle on both sides still existed in singapore...(and that people actually live here.)

Maybe its part of the authorities way of finding Mas Selamat, and giving him less places to hide (Just had to add that in). But still it is quite disturbing to see more and more of the nature that surrounds the seminary disappear. Soon we might have to change the name of this blog, as it becomes more and more developed and less like a kampung.

I still remember one of my first post on my own blog when I entered the seminary, was about the nature that surrounds the seminary. And how it makes it such a nice place to appreciate God's hand in creation. But with this clearing of the land next to us, and who knows what they are going to build there, I wonder if the squirrels, snakes, spiders, woodpeckers and all the wonderful creatures will continue to drop by for a visit. How else will we have reflections like the one that Bro Cornelius did on the Silly Spider?

And just as I was walking back to the seminary from mass in the parish, I see the excavator positioned at another part of the jungle.



I wonder if by the time we come back from our retreat in Majodi on friday, we will be greeted with the sight of a clear piece of land from the seminary up to the LRT line. Bro Cornelius said, don't be surprised if the concrete is already laid by then. This wouldn't really surprise me. Since I have been coming to Punggol since 1992 for school camps, and have seen how in a matter of 2 years, the land from the Buddhist Temple near Hougang all the way to Punggol MRT has been cleared and flats just shot up like that. And with the government now relaunching the Punggol 21 project that was put on hold for a while, it looks like we are going to lose more of the greenery, and serenity of this place. Hopefully it doesn't happen in the 5 more years I have left in this Kampung. But looks less and less promising.

Do pray for us as we go for our annual retreat, and that we won't have too big a shock when we return.