Singapore celebrated her 44th year of independence yesterday (Sun, 9 August 2009) amidst the worst recession it's seen. Our nation is showing a spirit of resilience and in this way, this National Day celebration is special as it demonstrates a coming together to celebrate the plucky attitude of Singaporeans to survive the crisis. As you can see, the floating platform on Marina Bay shows continual renewal in the Singapore skyline with mega construction projects ongoing, the most significant of which is the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort which is expected to open next year.
The big screen eye on the platform shows the unfolding of the different spectacles forming our big bash celebration. This screen shows the firing of five ceremonial guns.
Here, you see the real thing on the baywater - it is the first time that 21-gun Presidential Salute is fired from a floating platform. The guns fired at 60 second interval while the President inspects the front row of the marching contingents. The contingents comprise 2000 people from the armed forces, the police, uniformed and civilian groups. The ceremonial part of the celebrations is always part of our National Day celebration. Over the years, more exciting performances were added. The crowd pleaser is the air, land and sea simulated exercise of a counter-terrorist attack.There is the colourful pageantry of dances as usual but this year, there were skits put up by local actors which featured Singlish, that non-exportable Singaporean-speak that is an identity marker, cringeworthy at times but always heartfelt. For the first time, Ivan Heng, our talented theatre director in the local performing arts scene, was the creative director.
I leave you to view our finale, the fireworks display, of our birthday bash. Happy Birthday Singapore!
That's my World
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