Advocacy for Sungei Mandai 2003 - Jewel in Jeopardy

True to weather, October has been wild and contrasting. Inter monsoon wind and rain are confused and if I may add, as erratic as human affairs playing it out under the moody sky in true Thomas Hardy fashion.

First came the good news for Mandai mudflats. It finally found official recognition and is set to open in 2022 as a 72.8ha nature park to be named Mandai Mangrove and Mudflats. A modest beginning, hopefully, for better things to come.

Not long after, though, we were suddenly struck by the great loss of Subaraj Rajathurai - an outspoken advocate for our native wildlife - who passed away at 57. Hitherto he lived to see for himself a ray of hope shining for Mandai mudflats.

It was back in 2003 that I wrote and submitted an essay entitled 'Jewel in Jeopardy' (appended below) to The Ministry of National Development advocating the preservation of Sungei Mandai mudflats.

Today I am drawn by the unfolding events to relive the moment how I put pen to thought sixteen years ago and to make sense of time since passed and of people the likes of Subaraj and I, and many others who, at their own behest, represented a spot of earth such as Mandai mudflats with a feather of hope in our cap for conservation.

October also saw the successful opening of the Jewel at Changi Airport by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The feeling of national pride is evident as he paid tribute to Jewel as an idea or symbol that epitomises how in Singapore, we as a people must dream boldly to create new possibilities. As he put it - "Dream big, apply themselves and nothing is impossible."

It made me smile an everlasting smile like a quiver of my little feather. For these are age-old familiar words and ideas that still echoes from the distance of time immemorable.

But far beyond the politics of monuments and memorials, humble folks have from time to time answered the call of wild geese to dream the hopes of our beautiful world.  Not from glass palaces and gold-trimmed stairs,  but from the wildering heights of mountains, plains and seas.

Somewhere in time, a young wild goose found his jewel on such a rare spot of earth and called it his own. To him belongs the family of all things and the inheritance for all. My beautiful world, my all.

Jewel in Jeopardy
Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, located in a district fondly referred to as Kranji by many, sits pretty along the scenic waterway of Western Johor Straits. Though much change had been effected by our nation’s underlying need for water, the damming of several river systems - namely, Kranji, Sarimbun, Poyan and Tengah - did not seem to eliminate the ‘naturalness’ one still feels and sees especially from the vantage point of a boat ride along this strait.

In a word, it is a visual feast; one which is fundamentally enhanced by the remaining coastal vegetations that had survived such change and the diversity of coastal birds that grace the sky above.

At the heart of this naturalness, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve sits like a crown jewel. ‘Gem’ was how Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew described Sungei Buloh in his congratulatory note written in the Visitor Book during a recent visit.

He is not alone in this sentiment. Of the 5000 Singaporeans ‘from all walks of life’ solicited for feedbacks to URA’s Concept Plan 2001, ‘they all felt there was a need to protect nature areas and Sungei Buloh was mentioned at the time’ - Mr. Wong Tuan Wah, Director of Park Management, National Parks Board (ST, Nov 12, 2001).

Indeed, this gem is highly valued and a great price has been paid for it. ‘The land was actually zoned for an agro-technology park. It would have been a profitable economic venture. Instead, we decided to turn it over to the birds’, said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong when he opened Sungei Buloh as Singapore’s first wetland nature park in 1993. ‘Considering that we have a very high population density of about 4,400 persons per sq km, this is a big commitment to nature conservation’, he said (ST, Dec 7, 1993).

Come December 2003, another 10 years of ‘opportunity cost’ or investment would have been added to this value. However, one should not forget the crown for the jewel.

The gem, that Sungei Buloh is, has in the millennia been set securely in the ‘silver and gold’ of adjacent ecosystems (see map). All are linked as close ecological partners, and any detrimental changes to one may affect the others irreversibly. Recent exclusion of Sungei Mandai from URA’s draft plan poses questions about this vulnerability. If ecological links are ‘broken’, our crown jewel and all our investment may be lost at sea forever.

Prof. Murphy D. H., a well-loved lecturer whose decades of tutelage at the National University of Singapore had moulded several generations of biologists, had this ecological link firmly in mind when he wrote his paper ‘Birds, Mangroves and Man: Prospects and Promise of the New Sungei Buloh Bird Reserve’ published in 1990. (Essays in Zoology, Papers Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Department of Zoology, National University of Singapore).

Simply put, the bird life at Sungei Buloh will be adversely affected should ever Mandai mudflats be reclaimed. His study revealed that ‘Mandai does not provide the conditions required for roosting waders but the mudflats next to the Mandai mangroves are a major feeding area for the birds that roost at Sungei Buloh.’

Clearly, the management of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve cannot be confined within its boundary. At stake are not only the birds, but the collective investment put in through years of commitment and hard work by the National Parks Board, volunteers, NGOs and business partners alike. Also at stake are the opportunity cost invested in Sungei Buloh ever since and our reputation as a serious conservation strategist.

Sungei Buloh’s destiny is ecologically tied to Mandai mudflats. Undoing it could jeopardize everything we hold dear.

Map of Western Johor Straits
Legend:
PS - Pulau Sarimbun
SR - Sarimbun Rocks
HR - Herald Rocks
HSR - Horseshoe Reef
LCKM - Lim Chu Kang Mangrove
SBWR - Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
SBM - Sungei Buloh Mudflats
KM - Kranji Mudflats
SMM - Sungei Mandai Mudflats

A new painting: Thunderstorm at Chek Jawa

Poems by William Henry Davies

Leisure
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this is if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

Thunderstorms
My mind has thunderstorms
That brood for heavy hours
Until they rain me words
My thoughts are drooping flowers
And sulking, silent birds.

Yet come, dark thunderstorms,
And brood your heavy hours;
For when you rain me words,
My thoughts are dancing flowers
And joyful singing birds.

Footnote: Painting the dramatic dark sky of a stormy evening at Chek Jawa and remembering the courageous life of my mother whose ash were released in this very sea.

The Singing Bird Returns: Ailanthes integrifolia

Here I am
Born to fly
A little bird
Returning
Singing
Beneath
A tree
Of my Heart
Aglee.

Footnote: The seed was amongst the many I searched for and found in March 2016 in MacRitchie forest. These were immediately sown and nurtured by the wonderful team of workers at Pasir Panjang Nursery. I subsequently planted out a 1.5m tall sapling in Pulau Ubin in January 2018. It has since rocketed four times in height - photo above recorded in August 2019. The blog post reporting the finding of the winged seeds can be found here.

Going Bananas!

I am speechless! Never have I seen a banana behaving this way all my life! My goodness, what is happening here?! No longer behaving like a thyrse, the lateral branches of the inflorescence have developed into mini indeterminate terminal buds too. In another word, they no longer are hands and fingers! Though, there seem to be some sparse but 'normal' formation of fingers at the very base (nearest the main peduncle) of the inflorescence. Is the ultra multi-branching phenomenon a result of meristem disruption? I am going bananas and tearing my hair to know! See photos below:

Here is a good read: Morphology of a banana plant

Celebrating World Rainforest Day 2019 Singapore

In anticipation of World Rainforest Day 2019 (22nd June) , I am posting a long-overdue video of our awesome rainforest to share with fellow Singaporeans in the hope that in the weeks preceding the big day that you will go out there with friends and family to vote for its preservation with your feet, your heart and your voice. The rainforest needs your voice badly.

Video here:
Rainforest Singapore
https://youtu.be/pPTaAwPsTsk

Another video on streams in MacRitchie:
https://youtu.be/U398zWl-SBY

How to write appeal and why:
http://flyingfishfriends.blogspot.com/2013/11/postcards-to-our-dear-prime-minister.html?m=0

More Than Words

More Than Words

Saying I love you
Is not the words I want to hear from you
It's not that I want you
Not to say, but if you only knew
How easy it would be to show me how you feel
More than words is all you have to do to make it real.

(lyrics extracted from Extreme)

Above: My painting of Thomson's Rock at Pulau Ubin done with acrylics.

First painting on my own: Rift Valley in Taiwan

I must say I learnt quite a lot completing my first oil painting on my own. This is actually my second. It brought back the joy I felt standing amongst the Day Lilies high up on the mountain flanking the Rift Valley below. So very lovely.

Urban Surprises: Cordia dichotoma and Antidesma bunius

It is such a joy to find standing in some quiet forgotten corner in our urban sprawl a tree of rarity that somehow escaped the city's relentless development. Serendipity at its best! Here's two trees that I bummed into recently.

Cordia dichotoma fruits

Tree trunk 

Cordia dichotoma at Still Road

Another Cordia dichotoma I found a few years ago in Yio Chu Kang Road. 

Buni or Antidesma bunius - a tree of past cultivation. Found in Upper East Coast Road

Buni fruits

New Challenges: Oil Painting 2018

Teacher had been very patient and helpful. It was my first class in oil painting. With his guidance, I managed to complete a still life portrait of a brass vase flanked by a porcelain cup and saucer and a sugar pot.

It wasn't a breeze though. I was all seized up in knots at every stroke - wondering what paint to put on canvas. However, near the end, I decidedly 'let go', relaxed and enjoyed my freed self, rendering the wavy lip of the brass vase a last smack of confidence and a belief authentically mine. It felt great.

If that's not the most important lesson I have gained on my first day, what else? Nothing short of a perfect launch towards the golden sunsets to come!

So here I go! Sheet in the canvas, Sailor! Head up to the winds!

New Record of Hybanthus enneaspermus in Singapore

Voila! It is Violaceae - the Violet Family!

After two days of mental acrobatics, I finally identified this wild herb I found growing amongst grasses by the wayside recently.

Hybanthus enneaspermus or Spade Flower has a distribution  ranging from the African and Indian continent to South East Asia, New Guinea and Australia.

This discovery, however, records its occurrence in Singapore for the very first time.

Low spreading Herb with tap root. 

Flowers short-lived, opening at dawn and closing up by 11am.

Orientation of flowers. 

The Lesser Grass Blue butterfly inserting it's proboscis to sip nectar from the spur of the flower. 

Size of flower. Leaves and stems covers by fine glandulous short hairs.

Seeds from capsule which split into three valves. 

Celebrating International Day of Forests 2018: Listen to the Forest Streams

Celebrating International Day of Forests at MacRitchie 

Bird's eye view of MacRitchie rain fores

Listen to her streams.

https://youtu.be/U398zWl-SBY

   

Poem: A 100-year-old Bodhi Tree

A 100-year-old Bodhi Tree

I found it standing 

on a quiescent knoll

offering a lofty view 

of Paya Lebar

in part.

I wondered 

how it would feel like

if I could share 

the life of this tree –

one 7-year-old boy –

sitting beneath as he would 

40 years ago

and looking down 

the bucolic view

when all was green

as far as his eyes could see.

He would be sad indeed - 

very sad – knowing 

this tree of his roots

would be cut down 

40 years on and now...

how... how have we no room

for a gentle old tree?

Where it stands - be it

Buddhist or Taoist, Hindu or Sikh,

a temple, a mosque, 

church or synagogue,

 - the tree, wherever it may 

destined be,

provides its loving shade

to all in need.

Brethren, 

need we a better world for

multi-culturalism 

and ethnicity

and peace

than under a gentle tree?

Come brethren,

come touch this Bodhi Tree –

For it may soon be too late

to offer your hopes

that 100 years

 of loving kindness

will not be torn, shattered 

and gored

to splinters and dust.

- Joseph Lai

Poem: Mute Fingers

Mute Fingers

Bitter sweet waters

on a tearful strand;

his mute fingers

writing in the sand.

He could not enter,

he could not understand;

this benign ancient mariner

could not fathom the hearts of Man.

They worship diamonds so divine,

scorched from the bowels of the earth;

but of his sand-scripted shrine,

they rip asunder into the hearth.

And the four seas they divide,

claim and reclaim;

the master calligrapher did unite

all lands as the same.

Yet he remains a patient fisher

of simple women and men –

poets, painters, songwriters and seekers –

caught on a lark now and then.

You hear them in the children’s laughter,

you see them playing in the sea,

you see them in their mother and father,

and you can hear their hearts in plea.

A plea the plovers and the sandpipers

will understand;

for he was their teacher and provider

long before Man became Man.

- Joseph Lai

Poem: My Little Candle

My Little Candle

my little candle

does shed

a little circle of light

which guides

my way in life

on a migratory flight

the warmth I feel

within my heart

it stay

and in the setting suns

on my horizon

does my spirit play

rejoice thus I

within its glow

a flicker on my cheeks does show

to smile with nature’s creations

whose names

I need not know

so might I remain

forever true and free

from snaring Dead Knowledge

to hold fast my candle vigil

over the lightness

of my passage

whence with age my eyes doth fail

I hope the sparkle within

to keep

and follow my heart

into the wonders

of a star-spangled sleep 

- Joseph Lai

Poem: Heartstrings of my Island

Heartstrings of My Island

are there

heartstrings taut

and a’pulling

barred

so strong

and tender once

my ancestral home

to me

where nay never

shall I leave

here my motherland

liberated

and return

again and again

to you impatiently

even

in my sleep

that old familiar

bumboat

droning low

in the sound of my youth?

here I am

coming home

even in my sea-dreams!

- Joseph Lai

Celebrating Singapore Shores 2018: Seas the Day

Let me begin with my mom. She grew up tough in exceptional circumstances of being orphaned at a very young age during World War II. The only schooling she had is the University of Life.

I believe she must have cried a thousand million times being thrown into the streets literally. However, one thing for sure, she never gave in to despair nor let hardship hardened her. Life did not succeed in robbing her heart of gold.

Equally true to form, she often speak with the clarity of wisdom borne from the austerity of her life experiences. One constant refrain that still rings in my mind is her admonishment in Cantonese - 'ng ho tok seh shih'. Literally translated, it means 'study not dead books'.

In short, THINK. Free yourself. FEEL. Have a mind and heart. All knowledge and schooling you will ever have is dead so long as you do not think and expand. Unfettered yourself. Imagine. There is more in you that your life is worthy of you. Do not be confined. Step forward.

It is the spirited life she is asking us to live by. My mom never taught me ABC but all I need to know she did. This I truly believe.

I am writing this piece to celebrate Singapore Shores with my good friend Ria Tan on the occasion of the International Year of the Reef 2018. But why do I begin with the story of my mom and her admonishment?

I think there is a precious message that friends, especially in nature community, need to hear and understand.

You know, I was at a lonely beach by the ocean not long ago and wrote a poem - my first in Chinese. I felt the joy of a pebble rushing with the surge of raw intensity amidst the thunderous claps of her waves and I felt small yet eternally alive and large in the spirit of that timeless space called LIFE.

I take this occasion to muse again with a question - How does one or anyone truly celebrate Singapore Shores or the reefs or the sea for that matter? Would you have accumulated all known knowledge and have at the tip of your tongue names of all creatures of the seas, and quantify your schooling with every PhD you can ever lay hands on... would you have celebrated in truth if you cannot sit by her ocean waves and simply love her?

If you do profess any advocacy, start from within. Take that precious heart and mind out from within and work magic with the knowledge that only you alone can uniquely give to the world. You have in you the strength and integrity of the individual to impact the world. Don't cap it; draw from it. Nurture it with the purity and sincerity of purpose to which you feel called to.

I am no marine biologist and no PhD to my name although no one doubt my passion for plants as an out-and-out field botanist, but this does not stop me from stepping out and make an impact for the seas. I reproduce a letter I wrote in 2009 as an encouragement to all who wants to advocate and truly celebrate the seas. Seas the Day!

...Yes, my mother would have approved. 'Ng ho tok seh shih'.


** An Appeal Please Stop the Sales of Moray Eels at Sheng Shiong **

Dear Sir,

my name is Joseph Lai (49), a botanist and an active advocate for nature conservation in Singapore. Please accept my warmest greetings to you, Sir.

I am writing in my personal capacity to seek most humbly your kind understanding in stopping all future sales of moray eels at Sheng Shiong.

It has recently come to the attention of the nature community in Singapore that live moray eels are being sold as food at Sheng Shiong. I have verified it to be true at your Bedok branch. See webpage http://lazy-lizard-tales.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-slaughter-and-eat-thesebeautiful.html?showComment=1237436340000#c9103354966332138971

My concerns are: 1) Are these caught directly from the wild? Or are they farmed animals? Unless the source of the supply can be validated as farmed and bred in captivity, we are inclined to believe that wholesale (and market-scale) stocks are being caught directly from the wild. This would not only cause an uncontrolled decimation of the species through unsustainable wild harvesting but it would also irreversibly tip the fine ecological balance of coral reefs whenever top-predators like the moray eels are being removed from their local habitats. Inasmuch, the uniqueness of their natural history and their special niche within the ecosystem cannot be overstated enough here. One must understand that these highly-predacious and nocturnal eels are non-gregarious by nature and are territorial in habit. Eels keep each other naturally at ‘arm-length’ in a thinly-spread out community. Population density is therefore invariably low over any given unit area of any locality within its range. As a result of which, this low small number contributes in a big uncompromising way to species rarity. 

2) Secondly, why start and encourage a demand of an exotic food where in Singapore none of it existed at all before? I have not, in all my years growing up and working in Singapore encountered moray eels being sold in the market or served as delicacies in the restaurant. It is my hope that the interest in eating moray eels will never take root here in Singapore. I believe Sheng Shiong can help by stopping immediately all future sales of these moray eels. The fact of the matter is this: an exotic animal which is rare at the same time should never be eaten.

3) Lastly, high level of Ciguatoxin has been found in many species of moray eels. This type of toxicity is heatresistant and therefore cannot be neutralized by conventional cooking. The risk of poisoning is ever-present as many of the moray eels around the world are truly understudied. Moray eels are also known to inflict severe bites with their razor-sharp teeth and bacteria-laden mouth. I am really keen to know how rigorous your moray import has been subjected to by AVA in this respect.

The informed public like myself have in modern times taken on a greater personal responsibility towards effecting a safer environment and a sustainable future so dependent on the wise use of our natural resources. I hope, through this humble request, I have cause to celebrate with Sheng Shiong a corporate responsibility that can manifest itself as a universal friend in nature conservation – educating the greater public (your satisfied customers islandwide) with informed retailing and with a restraint that is beyond profit. I believe Sheng Shiong can be such a corporation.

 Your esteemed reply is most appreciated. Thank you.

Yours truly,


Joseph Lai Botanist

Important Footnote:
I do not know what impact the appeal letter may have on Sheng Shiong management. I did not receive any reply. However, I noted that shortly after, the sales of moray eels seemed to have terminated. No more live moray eels on display. In any case, all I needed to know is that I did my imperfect best. I have every wish in my heart that Sheng Shiong does what is right by themselves and take credit for it. That is why I kept the appeal away from public scrutiny. No one, not even my close friends knew about it; all except Nature Society and ACRES whom I informed in the hope that they also act for the moray eels.

Read how to write an appeal :
Postcards to our dear Prime Minister

Rare tree at Chek Jawa coastal hill discovered: Fahrenheitia pendula, a new record for PulauUbin

Lovely Chek Jawa never ceases to amaze. This is my second time encountering Fahrenheitia pendula (now called Paracroton pendula) . My first was in 1996 at Bukit Timah Hill. What an early Christmas present for me. Thank you, CJ. Kisses.

Rare Trees at MacRitchie Forest: Xerospermum noronhianum and Ormosia bancana

A joy to behold indeed. These are some very rare wild rambutan and beans that can be found in MacRitchie Forest.

Clase-up of fruit of Xerospermum noronhianum

Lenticellated bark of Xerospermum noronhianum

Erect spray of fruits of Xerospermum noronhianum

Leaves are highly variable for Xerospermum noronhianum

Single seeded pod of Ormosia bancana

Tussles of open pods on tree

Tall buttresses of Ormosia bancaca

Tall Oldgrowth Coastal Forest of Marsiling

My Rotherham Gate

In the 70’s,

Rotherham Gate can still be seen

as a charming pair of mossy concrete posts

with wrought iron gates and spiky fences.

I knew it well

as I lived only a stone throw away.

And as often as I took the road - a young man -

down the gate and jogged along the picturesque coastal road,

I encrypted a world of a past-present tense
pressed in by nuances of green

romancing every step in me as always

a lone runner today.

In year 2000,

I drew a sketch like a swiftlet would make her nest.

Au naturel yet home of my reality,

A gate of mine now – grit, spit, blood and tears.

And Bumber dear o' so very near
Her rest on sunset meadow endears. 

No one knew better than me like the oldgrowth forest

lording over the gate - my touchstone of time.

In 2017,

I stood by now a solitary invisible gatepost.

I met a young man jogging pass.

He did not see me but I did with my 58-year-old eyes.

I knew where he was going and more. He did not.

And how could he have known the heart of this oldgrowth forest?

Not Endospermum diadenum or Lindera lucida,

Not Macaranga conifera or Bauhinia biflora,

Not Ilex, Palaquium, Archidendron ellipticum…

No, not a single tree that holds up the sheltering sky.

But now he knows.

He knows I loved him and always will.

- Joseph Lai

Me and Bumber

My sketch of Rotherham Gate and plants in year 2000.

Tidal creek Sungei China nearby. 

Trees of oldgrowth forest averaging 30m.

The oldgrowth forest lording at the Causeway over surrounding farmlands in a archival photo dating the 1950s.

Rubus moluccanus 2017

Coastal road of Marsiling. 

Large banyan engulfing the remaining gatepost below the oldgrowth forest 2017.

The canopy of the oldgrowth forest 2017.

Lindera lucida 2017

Endospermum diadenum 2017