National Day

It's National Day again. A day when the vast majority of Singaporeans are either glued to their TVs or their seats at the Padang or National Stadium or wherever the parade's at. They've always had a parade on National Day. About 200 vehicles owned by MINDEF and MHA have just been dragged across St. Andrew's Road, the road in front of the old City Hall building. (I wrote this at 7:40, and then went afk till 9:30)

National Day Parades in Singapore are remarkably odd. You probably won't find anything like them anywhere else in the world. After the usual marching men and women and trucks going incredibly slowly, we have something which can only be described as a variety show. A specially-chosen Singaporean singer belts out some offensive new national day song and lots of people dance behind her (it's usually a her). While they do that the thousands of people watching the show at the venue invariably wave torchlights or lightsticks for no apparent reason.

NDPs are odd things. An odd parade for an odd nation.

All the same: Happy National Day.