A walk down botany lane

This time i want to talk a little about my walk in the Singaporean Botanical Gardens, end of 2008, with my family on our annual holiday trips. I'll be posting some pictures taken using a cheap-ass camera with macro mode on, and i'll be taking of my usual macho, gung-ho suit off (hahaha) as they are pictures of flowers..Okay, let me give you a little illustration on where this nice gardens are; I've been to Singapore a few times but it doesn't mean i know the streets well, but what i can tell you is this garden is a lot like New York's Central park when it comes to location. It's a few bus stops from Orchard Road, so you can imagine that when you arrive at the bus stop and see the gates of this garden, you can see all around it are city landscaping; shops, sky-scrapers, huge roads, etc. I've been to the botanical gardens we have in our country (Bogor, Western Java, Indonesia -red) and it has been ages since the last time i was there so forgive me if my memories of it is faded, but what i can remember is the gardens that we have is uninteresting, it lacks maintenance, and the infastructure like the buildings, facilities, or simply overall cleanliness is just appalling, there's no way one can really appreciate it. Because my theory is such; nature is all about purity, it's about going back to basic, without traces of human civillization; now how can you enjoy the show of nature in a garden that has garbage here and there?

Singapore is a small state, this i say in terms of land mass. But as a state, it's one of Asia's tigers. The one thing that always fascinates me about Singapore is that on 

a map its right next to my country, just a few clicks north-west of Jakarta. But on the day that you fly from Jakarta and then land in Singapore, it just feels like you're in a whole different continent, it feels like the 1.5 hour trip seems impossible and that you've gone far far away. I'll explain why; since i was a kid i've already started to question; what don't we have that developed states have? Now as complex as this question is as a 10 year-old i came with a simple answer : it's probably because of geography, that our place is warm all the time all people want it just to sit under a tree, enjoy the breeze and fall asleep. Don't get me wrong, at that time i was backed up by a saying; Indonesians sweat when they eat, not when they work (i don't agree totally to this, i don't really discriminate work, i just sweat all the time hahaha). Okay, so i was convinced because it is about location.

The more i aged the more my eyes opened, i had access to information

 i didnt have 10 years ago (okay so i'm a little old, when i was 10 internet access is not like it is today; there's an internet cafe every 10 steps). So when i put my foot on Singapore, i was amazed! Am i right that this country here is right next to ours? the difference is just ridiculous. Public facilities and the effectivity of it is usually my indicator to judge a state, and Singapore's public infastructure is simply stupendous.

Most amazing woman in the world; Mum!

Back to the botanical gardens. It's pretty huge, to circle it takes about 4-5 hours, and you get a whole mixture of nice green views; trees, well-cut grass, there's an orchid house, there's a green house, and right in the middle i think they have this huge lake with some food stalls around them. If you happen to get there, don't purchase the hot dog; it's way to huge and plain unless you put tonnes of sauce, ketchup, and mustard on it.

Another thing that bugs me is that when i see a lot of the plants and living organizms that they have in the garden, i realize that this is not something we don;t have in Indonesia, i'd say 80% if the stuff is available in Indonesia. Why can't we do this? We have lots of orchids, why didnt we think of making hybrid orchids and naming them after hot shot figures of the world? Isnt this a nice strategy to both attract people to see and to seal good diplomatic relations? I found one hybrid named after the later Ibu Tien (Indonesia's second First Lady, wife of the late President Soeharto), and it's just great that they preserved her name forever in the form of a hybrid orchid. The gesture is very splendid. Entering the greenhouse i'm more convinced; it feels like i'm back in Sumatra, this is exactly how it feels in the SUmatran jungles; the plants, the stream, the humidity, etc.

I'm appalled and nonplussed at the same time. I realized then that it doesn't really take a lot for a state to excell. It's really about paying attention to little things, because in a country people are little, so paying more to little things means great things to the people. And a state i think is only as good as it treats its society. It's not really about the potential of a state, it's about the perseverance of the state to prove itself. Singapore in Fukuyama's quadrant of state classification would be in area 2 (or 4 i forgot) where it has both strict legal ruling and a strong enforcement. Their people are hardworkers, creative, and possess a comparative edge despite their small geographical land mass.

Indonesia is no worse actually. We do have what it takes to excell. But the question is do we have what it takes to take the right steps towards health, wealth, and wisdom? We will see. Maybe all hope is not lost after all...