New Singapore Attraction: Haze

After a few days of haze, I would have thought that there would be lesser and lesser as the time passes by, but I was totally wrong.
Monday (17 June) was worse as PSI hit 111 (unhealthy level), and again I thought it couldn't have been worse. But I was soooo wrong...

Today I went out to do some errands, and I got teary eyes, and trouble breathing since the smell of burning wood was just so strong. All around me was covered with smog which at quick glance, people might have thought it was just a mist, til they notice the faint shape of skyscrapers and realized 'hey, this is Singapore, there's no mist here!', then the smell of burning wood just wakes the sense out of them.

Chinatown

Chinatown

Then when I was waiting for bus at Bugis, I looked up the sky and there it was, a faint color of blue... which got me thinking that today could have been a bright and good day if only the haze hadn't worsened.

Bugis

Anyway, I was glad when I finally reached home. I then took a shower to wash the burning smell off my skin. Once my laptop was booted up, I found news that today, PSI hit another new high, 172 at 3 PM. Sigh...
From wikipedia, the highest 3 hour PSI ever recorded was 226 in 1997.

From the news, Indonesia government said that they had the water dropping aircraft ready if the local governor ever made a request. This kinda puzzles me. Can they do some checking instead of waiting for any request from local governor??? It is obviously bad enough as the haze already affects their neighboring countries greatly. Can they leave their as*** off their comfy chair and actually do some work that could help improving the situation???
Another ridiculous remark from a ministry official of Indonesia, he shifted the blame to Singapore and Malaysia, saying that it is their palm oil companies that impose slash-and-burn method to clear the forest with minimal cost/effort. This really baffles me. Was he trying to say that the government was sooo weak and powerless to actually enforce their authority??? It is on their power to investigate or even sue or forbid those companies from doing such thing, but the fact that they still do it anyway, it means that they are given permissions to do so, and by who? Hmmm.. one can only wonder...


Well, enough ranting for today, it's time to show some beauty! I got some batiks from Indonesia that I want to show off!

Aren't they pretty?!?
I can't wait to make something out of them!