History, Heritage, Preservation, Conservation

What you are going to read from here on, is like a compilation of some of the photography/writing that I had been doing, what’s happening recently with history, heritage, preservation, conservation and what action groups, movement had done and still ongoing. With quite a few things/situations happening around us in Singapore over this year 2011, let’s take a walk through this short timeline

The Green Corridor 

When it was announced that the KTM Railway will be returned back to Singapore, it didn’t kick start a major reaction until closer to the last days of the end of the KTM Railway. The 2 train stations were preserved and conserved, the railway tracks were removed and returned back to Malaysia, leaving the current entire stretch very different, just a path with grass, while waiting for the masterplan to be out on the plans for the Green Corridor. The future of the Green Corridor, with an exhibition at the URA centre, known as Re-Imaging The Green Corridor, showed that between public and private sectors, we can come together to work, discuss, plan and decide together for the future of the Green Corridor. Do follow this facebook group “We Support The Green Corridor” for updates!

My coverage of The Green Corridor can be found here on my photoblog and the special folder The Green Corridor on Flickr !

Old Places

Singapore is developing at such a fast pace, especially for me in the past 5 years, the transformation is remarkable and it gives us a modern cosmopolitan city landscape. However, in the quest for modernisation and change, Singapore had already lost and are losing things, from history, heritage, landmarks and many old places. After watching Royston’s Tan Old Places, I was very motivated to do my own photojournalistic coverage and write up of the Old Places in Singapore before it’s gone forever and they can only be seen on DVDs, libraries, micro-films, internet, photographs etc. For those who are into Old Places in Singapore, do check out the Facebook Group – Old Places for more updates !

My coverage of the Old Places in Singapore can be found here on my photoblog and a special folder Old Places on Flickr!

Interest Groups – Preserving, documenting and sharing early days of Singapore – On a little street in Singapore

This Facebook group is started by Jerome Lim, a blogger/photographer, someone who has very great passion in sharing and preserving the history and heritage of Singapore. His Facebook Group is sharing and connecting like-minded people of different age groups, who are keen on Singapore in the early days from the colonial days to independence days and early nationhood days. This is a very informative and interesting site, especially for the younger generation to learn beyond the history books on our culture and heritage and those landmarks and lifestyle gone by. Here’s the link on Facebook !

Recently, a few other areas surfaced into the picture

Bukit Brown Cemetery 

With a rising population in a limited and small land space Singapore, a thirst for more cars and expected heavier traffic, Bukit Brown Cemetery was slated for re-development, not just for roads, it’s also being planned for housing development too. This caused quite a stir too, with people stepping up to write, share and document down. This cemetery is iconic because of Singapore’s early pioneers, who helped to build up Singapore’s economy and society, some of them were buried there. Removing them is like tearing what builds up Singapore in the first place, way before independence during the British Colonial days. However, with the inevitable quest and thirst for more land, space and housing, where does the balance lies ? This is a question that is not a million dollar question as some people would put it, there might be no answer that fits everybody.

For more information and following on the updates, follow them on Facebook – Heritage Singapore – Bukit Brown Cemetery 

Save Old School

The Old School, perched on the top of the hill known as Mount Sophia, another rich history and heritage of early Singapore. A few historic buildings on the hill, which housed Methodist Girls’ School, is slated for re-development purposes and plans. It’s disappointing that more plans are being made/planned to change/remove these historic landscapes forever from our sight, for the sake of modernisation, growth and expansion. Let’s hope we can do more to Save Our School and preserve, conserve and protect more old historic iconic buildings!

For more information and following on the updates, follow Save Old School on Facebook !

Rochor Centre

This is stamped and sealed, in local terms “already decided, stamped chopped”, an area of very colourful of (Yellow, Blue, Red and Green coloured) Housing Development Board (HDB) flats in the area of Bugis, not too far from the Central Business District and Marina Bay area. They will be torn down, the residents and local businesses there relocated somewhere nearby, for the sake of building a new expressway, known as the N-S, North-South Expressway. The reactions, thoughts and feelings of the residents and Singaporeans are spreading in a viral manner on the social media channels and networks, on the traditional media and on the street level – the Heartlanders hearts, mind and soul.

My humble and simple coverage is just the tip of the ice berg, however, I hope that it helps to spread the word, cause and concern for us to Save Our Spaces, history, heritage, culture, preserve and carry it on for the future. This is also something to remind me again and again to continue on with my Old Places and Green Corridor coverage, something personal that had stagnated for quite a number of months.

As much as there is a need to replace and remove some of the older places and buildings for the inevitable growth and expansion of a country, surely and definitely we go around tearing historic landmarks and monuments that are part of our growth and expansion from her British Colonial days to early nationhood days to the cosmopolitan city that we are living in today ?

I believe we can find that balance, if everybody does their part.