"It's the firebrand style of opposition politics. Just the usual bullshit ravings of a madman lah." said Aidan as he riffled through the pages of the whisper thin newsletter.
"I dunno dude... they might be onto something here, only I don't think cannibalism has anything to with it."
According to the article, a homeless man started to attack passers-by at Toa Payoh hub yesterday afternoon. A lady was severely mauled and had to be rushed to SGH A&E because nearby Tan Tock Seng was responding to "rioting" at a nearby hospice for the aged and infirm.
"Fuck guys. Apparently, the gahmen civil serpents shot the homeless dude dead."
"What?!" I grabbed the papers from Ishmal.
My eyes scanned through the wall of text, I felt labored pulse of cardiac response as my mind tried to make sense of what little I had read:
A 67 year old homeless man attacked and brutally mauled 23 year old Linda Lee as she made her way through the back alley adjacent to Toa Payoh HUB. The man later identified to be Wong Chuan Say was discovered slowing gnawing on Ms. Lee's severed arm as she lay bleeding to death along the passageway. Passers-by to the scene tried to restrain him but were frightened off by Wong's nasty snarls. The situation came to a close when the Police responding to calls from the public fatally shot and killed Wong. Other than Lee who remains in critical condition, Arresting Officer Andrew Lim was bitten and required 22 stitches along his thigh during the scuffle. Corporal Jason Chen fired an initial shot into the man's abdomen but failing to stop him, was forced to fire a second . The subsequent headwound ended the day's dramatic events. Andrew Lim remains in critical condition.
Ah, the Singapore Police Force- "The pride of the land". I used to remember the jingle before each episode of CrimeWatch. We're quite proud of our men in blue, with the ever low crime rates, they were experts at taking naps at carparks, equally apt at ordering roti kosong from neighbourhood prata stalls. Life's good in Singapore.
Singapore, jewel of the orient and pristine city of East Asia, the richest "developing" nation this side of the world yet for all our wealth, the social graces and humanity befitting our financial stature eluded us for decades. Money doesn't buy happiness or social graces unfortunately, a good deal of us keep our aged away from our homes and in hospices.
Hospices- we hide our dead and dying there. I would say "aged" but aged would be a stretch. The horrible truth was that many Singaporeans, caught up in the rat race that was society here nary had time for our elderly. When you abandon your parents/grandparents to these homes, chances are they wished they were dead or dying, hopefully spared the ignominy of desertion.
Asian values, western decadence, these were keywords of an earlier Prime Minister. Now, an elder statesman, we watched his son ascend the throne of the dynasty. Like the time he went AWOL during the escape of a terrorist figure from one of our most highly secured facilities, our leader was nowhere to be found during the early stages of the outbreak.
I watched the pretty pan-asian CNA reporter read the news emotionless as footage of "rioting" old folks attacked the hospice matrons. I noticed something odd though- it wasn't caretakers vs the elderly. Some of the attackers were assaulting their own too.
Her calm, confident veneer broke when the camera cut to a swarm of wrinkled bodies chewing on a plumpish aunty, as the camera zoomed in, the blood and all it's visceral connotations spray painted the white hospice tiles crimson. It wasn't long before the live feed was cut but not before we saw a glimpse of intestines skidding across the nicely sanitized floor.
Black screen turned to yet another live feed of our Home Affairs Minister, "I'm appalled." He said.
Boy that makes twice in one week. First the immigration checkpoint issue where a dad waltzed through airport security using a passport not his own and now this.
I was appalled too. But not that this happened, we had long moved on from that. But that it made little sense watching what was unfolding before our very eyes. The web admins were hardpressed to suppress the youtube links that Singaporeans were posting on STOMP and Hardwarezone forums. But in a matter of hours, it was everywhere and everyone had a different opinion on what the hell was going on.
But a few like minded individuals had a rough idea.
Hell was going on and it was coming here.
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