Jurong Bird Park裕廊飞禽公园 ... 我的记忆，我的感触

Jurong Bird Park... a place that sounded so far... It's at Jurong. It's a hard-to-reach place, for someone who always resides in the eastern part of the island, though Singapore island is not big, and indeed, for every work day, I make my journey to the west. 

It's an excuse? No... my journey to the west has a purpose - a practical one.

Recently, it came to the news... because it is moving out after so many years (almost as old as me), to be 'integrated' to its other Mandai Parks. This announcement has probably brought back lots of businesses - for people wanted to make their last visit before it's gone. It's common. Isn't it? 

Bird Park - my only impression is the open aviary where there's a huge net that cast over a huge park where birds can fly freely, and the waterfall that I read in my Chinese textbook then... telling us that the waterfall at the aviary is tallest man-made waterfall in the world... yes, the impression, and the very first one that bring a 'wow' that I was so proud what an achievement the small nation had (at that point of time). Birds in the park did not leave any impression at all, but the waterfall. Funny?

That happens when one is young and has little info available. In addition, back in the 1970s/1980s, there was no internet, unlike today, where information is so easily accessible at the finger tips. Every piece of information was news and precious, when one lived in an enclosed environment. The only sources of information came from book, television, radio, newspapers. Our knowledge of who we (i.e. the country) are is highly dependent on these sources, hence these channels shaped our mental model, too. 

I was moved when I read about how the bird park came about, though unclear of its full intent behind that "... Singaporeans would be inspired by a bird park..." 

To me, it's about bringing the world to Singaporeans. Remember in the 1970s, Singapore is still in its early years of nation building. It is a real luxury for commoners to travel. Yes, I use the word commoners as most of the popular would not be well-off enough of even thinking of going out of Singapore (except Malaysia, probably more for work). When most people would not travel out, one way is to bring the world to the small country to open our minds, to heighten our awareness. 

I recall it was always exciting when I heard there would be an excursion. How often do we get to go elsewhere apart from schools? Shopping is like an 'excursion', too! where I would be fancied by the range of products out there... the many different types of notebooks, pens, etc... mind you, that time, brands like Pilot and Pental are not common, "Popular" bookstore was not so 'popular' - the only one I knew of was the one in Bras Bersah. 

How time has changed... OR maybe I should say, how much Singapore has progressed. 

With Singaporeans so well-travelled, especially those of my generation who have been travelling out of the country quite regularly, what was big to us, what was impressive to us in Singapore has been 'shrinking'.... it's no longer as impressive as what we had thought of many years ago. 

Here's an example... For those who have travelled to Australia to see the King Penguins or have seen the sea of penguins in South Africa will not be impressed with what we have here... a few pathetic king penguins that are kept captive in a small enclosure that tried to 'simulate' then environment. 

Well, for those who have not see a real penguin, it makes a difference! It's a penguin! 

Today, when will we hear this exciting response? Probably only for kids who have yet travelled overseas to see a real one. 

Something that I'm still quite impressed, for the work of about half a century ago, the architecture or designer of the enclosure had studied and adopted the mirrors to create effects that we saw commonly used in palaces in Europe countries - the space and 'crowd' effect. 

I am thankful to the Singapore Founding Fathers... your foresightedness and the ground work.

This is an example of what you did may not seem still relevant in today BUT it was this first step that bring us forward to open our minds and path.