NDP2014

It was really great on the day of the actual national day parade. I got paired up with the very same Nila I met during the preview, and this time round, I managed to see who the person controlling Nila's every movement was.
It definitely was out of my expectations (I expected the person to be some fit young man who is in the army or something). It turned out to be a plump man who had a skin colour so dark I almost thought he wasn't a chinese. Not just that, he turned out to be in his 40s.
Needless to say, I was quite shocked.
It surprised me that he was the one in that heavy and hot suit of Nila which could potentially cook him alive under the blazing hot sun (the weather on 9th of August was worse than 2nd of August). It surprised me how he could survive the turmoil of the heat when I was already dying in the heat without the costume. It surprised me how he could be so hyper in that weather. And last but not least, it surprised me how his enthusiasm and patience for the public remained despite his suffering.
It was slightly heartbreaking to see a man of his age to be in such a thick and heavy costume under the hot sun. Honestly, I would prefer NSmen to do it although it sucks almost as much, but I think that younger men definitely have more stamina and energy than middle aged men. Of course, that's a really stupid statement, but (I hope) you get my point.
Another thing that made me a little sad and touched during the parade would be the generosity of the officers of the army. This was basically what happened: We faced a lack of seats and the officers gave up their seats for us. We offered to sit on the staircase, but the officers insisted that we take the seats. We tried hard to coax them to sit but to no avail. This was what one officer said:
"As army officers, we put the public first. We have trained for years to stand for long periods of time. We also have an image to keep up. So no worries, just sit and enjoy the show."
The part where he said they have an image to keep up made me rather unhappy. I understand that army officers and even soldiers should be portrayed as the strong and powerful men who the whole country can rely on for defence. But this doesn't mean they should be deprived of their comfort.
A while back, there was a photo which went viral on twitter. It showed an NSman on the train who was standing with his huge backpack despite having quite a number of empty seats beside him. And a while before the picture went viral, another NSman was criticised (or rather, maligned) on STOMP for not giving up his seat to an elderly woman. The photo was later found out to have been edited, in which an empty seat beside the man was delibrately cropped out.
I don't think Singaporeans should keep the mindset that, oh, NSmen are strong therefore they have no problems standing for long periods of time with their heavy bags. Yes, they may have been trained to do that, but that doesn't mean they can't even relax. They are humans, not robots. They need to rest, like everyone of us. How would you like to try being in their shoes?
A seemingly normal national day parade, a number of new lessons learnt.
That's all for now.