a house is not a home.
This is Hougang.
My parents, my two brothers and I have lived here for more than twenty years - I think we used to live somewhere in Chai Chee when we were little. For the longest time, I wondered why we had to live here of all places. Old friends told me it wasn't "pretty" and strangers I didn't know said it was dying in its own way. I wasn't sure what it meant but I do know that my parents considered moving several times. And each time, the option was no more than a few blocks away. Why can't we take a leap of faith, I said. Pack up and head to someplace in the west. I don't see the point of moving if we're only going as far as the next block.
I finally got it last night. I don't think it's easy to imagine being in someone else's shoes and understanding why we make the choices we do, but Hougang's stand can't get any clearer. There's no need for a new lift that stops at every floor when the old one that stops at every other floor is working fine. There's no need for a fresh coat of paint when all we really want is for our blocks to be left alone. We don't need your initiatives or your estate upgrading programmes, all of which conveniently only make an appearance once every five years pre-election. We aren't stupid or greedy or materialistic enough. All we want is someone who's going to make us proud.
And if we have to be labelled a "slum" for all time just to prove a point, I think we can live with that.
After all, slums don't get any better than this.