Many things have been happening in the house since we moved back. The major part would be the ongoing renovations around the house.

I say ‘around’ because most of the works has happened mainly in the garden. Before I proceed further with pictorial evidence, you can surf to >and see how the place looked like before the current renovations.

Now, the picture description of our current premises.

Our new gate, with new columns and new lights that cast the strongest glow, among the other houses, on the road at night.

A wall bordering the boundary, acting somewhat like planter boxes but with more space.

This is what I call the ‘laundry area’. The washing machine – which is not very common in homes here as most families either wash by hand or have it washed at the laundry – is visible on the left. Our temporary clothes drying stand is at the place where the permanent drying stand/area will be. On the right, you see the start of construction of a stone grill, which will be well utilised for dinner barbecues!

The study cum office, which used to be the living room. The orange door behind Roberto is the front entrance.

Our lone bookshelf, which was our makeshift wardrobe for six months, facing the front door.

We finally bought a decent dining set, that matches with the colour on the walls…

As well as a wardrobe for the house, seen on the right, to accompany the temporary armour on the left.

Still in the works is the nursery for Baby Capodieci, and a dog-door for Caramel, whom you can see below, first with me on November 11, and then on November 26, sitting atop a mound of rocks dug up as part of the renovations in the garden. Is he not just gorgeous?

Another lazy Sunday? Not for the families that turned up at Sanur beach for the launch of the first book in the Keep Bali Clean series.

The book is a collaboration between some of our friends, and is aimed at teaching children how to help keep Bali’s beaches clean through the use of a dolphin, turtle and seagull, animals that are familiar in Bali.

There are several factors that make this book unique:
- it is written in English, by a published children’s books author who retired to Bali from Australia;
- the English text has been translated in to Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Bali;
- the illustrations are hand drawn by a workman, whose talent was only discovered when he provided roughs sketches for the story;
- numerous books have been printed for distribution to schools in Bali, thanks to generous sponsorship from a book publisher, as well as corporate and individual sponsors;
- proceeds from the sale of the first book will go towards costs of producing the second book, which is already being drafted;
- a board game following the theme of the first book, and is sold seperately;
- concurrently, there are receptacles for organic waste, paper, and plastic made out of banana leaves being left around beaches in Bali, encouraging people to dispose of trash in the correct places.

There was a huge turn out at the launch, which included some story telling, gamelan music and traditional Balinese dance characters driving the message home about keeping Bali’s beaches clean.

While we have not been active participants in the production of the book, we are extremely happy to help promote it. We even bought one book for ourselves, so that our family can learn Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Bali together.

If you would like to make a sponsorship or purchase books, you can contact Etha (ethwid ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com) for more details.

Another day of catching up with the Singapore news and I discover that in the Country Brand Index 2007 survey, my home country is voted the most desirable Asian country to live in.

It is listed after New Zealand (the country that I ultimately hope to reside in), Australia and Sweden, just ahead of the United States, and other countries including United Kingdom, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Italy.

For the news article, click here: channelnewsasia.com

For other category winners in the survey, click here: Country Brand Index 2007

~~~~~~~~~~

Having spent 29 years growing up in Singapore, and especially after I have travelled around the S.E. Asia and Asia region, I can fully understand why Singapore appeals to many people as the top Asian country to live in.

A big plus is the fact that the working/business language is English, so road signs, legal documents, contracts, books, notices and the national newspaper are written in English. Its citizens speak English, which may not be grammatically correct at times, and with an accent that is a strange mix of Malay and Chinese. Even the hawker selling noodles at the neighbourhood wet market can speak a smattering of English, sufficient for an expatriate to get his/her order of food without any error. At the end, everyone can understand each other and be understood.

While English is spoken in other Asian countries, it is not as widespread as in Singapore. Most citizens of Hong Kong, another former British colony that is now a state of China, use Cantonese for daily conversation and while they learn English in school, only those that are directly involved in the tourism industry can speak English fluent.

Singapore also appeals as things are organised, efficient and affordable, as compared to other developed countries.

Look at its public transport system, which is organised in an easily navigable manner and is affordable. Most importantly, the taxis, buses and subway trains are clean and free of litter or graffiti.

Internet access at home is fast, reliable and affordable. There is also complimentary Internet access found at eateries, cafes, and public areas around the island. In the aftermath of the Taiwan quake that happened on 26 Dec 2007, it took the country only one day to restore Internet connectivity island-wide. (In Bali, it took between one to two weeks before Internet connections, other than via satellite, were fully functionally around the island.)

Sure, a lot of these work because of strict government regulations leading to hefty fines or punishments that have been in place since the 70s: no littering; no vandalism or defacing of public property; ban on chewing gum; no public nudity; gatherings of more than a certain number (I am guessing it is five as I cannot recall the actual figure) without a police license is considered illegal; heavy penalties for tax evasion, and so on so forth.

In many ways, the system works because of the citizens of Singapore: they make things work.

For example, punishments in the forms of fines work, because Singaporeans are so hung up on earning more money to buy more material goods. It is our obsession with materialism that has provided the law makers an easy solution for any problems: hurt them where it matters most, their pockets!

Majority of the population have been conditioned to the point where we do what we are asked to, and accept our lot unquestioningly. This conditioning is enforced in several ways, starting from our education system. Then there are the repercussions of early government initiatives on the previous generations of Singaporeans, which are passed on to their children and future generations.

Sounds like a nation of pre-programmed robots without emotions, thoughts and creativity, right? In fact, we did have a dearth of creativity in the late 80s to early 90s due to the rigid education system where students were fed information and expected to regurgitate everything ad-perfectium in examinations.

In a desperate attempt to correct that error, the government introduced classes to teach creativity in schools. For someone who always thought that creativity is innate and flourishes when encouraged, I did not understand how creativity can be thought. The initiative may have worked though, as the country now has several colleges dedicated to performance, visual and arts, all of which are very popular among students.

However, if you look carefully Singapore, you may begin to understand why the government and policy makers placed so much focus on its citizens.

Our tiny island is surrounded first by mass bodies of water, then by neighbours that have larger land mass. These larger land masses are a treasure of natural resources, including crude oil, palm oil, timber, tin, rubber, rice and fish.

Singapore, with its small land mass, has zero natural resources. Although it possesses an enviable position as a port of call on the route between India and China, this can be taken away if a channel is built further north in Malaysia/Thailand that can shorten the route taken by ships.

Singapore even has to purchase potable water from Malaysia or there will be insufficient water for its citizens!

The only abundant thing the island had, and still has, is its people. The law makers of modern Singapore realised this right from the beginning and thus turned their attention and investments in to its people.

Part of the investment involved cleaning up the country, of its filth and disease that were spread through acts such as littering, spitting and other unhygienic practices. Thus there are now designated areas for licensed hawkers to operate from, while littering and spitting are offenses punishable by law.

Together with this, is the overhauling and improvement of the public health system, which is an on-going concern for the government. A public health system that is accessible to all citizens would ensure that Singapore’s main resource – its citizens – remain healthy and able to continue turning Singapore in to a country that can compete and survive with the bigger developed countries.

The result is what you see today: an Asian country that is a mix of modern and traditional values, of Western and Asian ideas; an Asian country that is considered desirable to live in.

In many ways, I can understand why those who voted for Singapore, did. However, as a citizen who lived with the system for 29 years, the only gripe I had was the quality – or should I say lack of quality – of life most citizens lived.

The downside of having a country that works because its people does is that most people do not enjoy going to work, and generally do not enjoy life.

Whether you are running your own business or working for someone else, things at work are always stressful. There is a need to remain competitively priced, while offering a range of innovative products and services that will satisfy and thus retain customers. Business owners have to always be aware that they are not operating foul of regulations set by the government, while workers must be filled with initiative, courtesy and are expected to multi-task.

However, the amount you earn is not equivalent with the effort and energy you expand in your work.

There are cases where, due to company culture, colleagues frown on anyone who leaves for home when it is time to knock off, even if work hours are already stated on paper; you are expected to leave at least 30 minutes later.

Then there are times where office workers are expected to work overtime on weekdays or return to the office over the weekends without overtime pay, meal allowances or transport allowances. Refusal to comply would mean immediate loss of job or some other form of disciplinary action that will make the rest of your tenure on the job absolutely miserable.

Anyone opting to work freelance is viewed as abnormal, for he/she is going against the norm. Additionally, the cost of living in Singapore, especially for someone who rents their own apartment and does not live with parents, is high.

Income from freelance work is unpredictable and not regular, while daily expenses for rent, food, and transport are unavoidable.

With such a strenuous and stressful working culture, it is no wonder that Singapore citizens complain that they have no time for anything else and have no ideas when it comes to relaxation or spending time with family and friends. Their biggest indulgences are eating, shopping and watching movies because these are convenient and require little planning.

As much as I love how things work so smoothly in Singapore, I could not live without having time on weekends to pursue my interests or spend time with family and friends.

Sure, there are many aspects about Bali that are not as good as Singapore: sometimes our Internet connection is non-existent for a day; bills have to be paid at an office an not online; there is no public transport system except for taxis and sometimes the price has to be haggled before the journey begins, instead of being charged by the metre; local warungs, the equivalent of neighbourhood hawker stalls, are sometimes swarming with flies; there is no trash disposable system, as the only way of disposing it is by burning it in your backyard or in an empty field.

Sometimes, delays or glitches in Internet or work during the week are blessings in disguise: we can watch a movie or read a book at home in the afternoon; arrive at 5pm on the beach to bask in the setting sun; pay bills or settle administrative stuff at various locations; call friends up on the spot for afternoon tea.

In the end, I guess I am a person who is willing to give up order and system for more time to do the things I want to do. As I have often said before: life is short, so live it the way you want, not how others expect you to.

Apparently, my entry about the Italian postal system brought back loads of horrific memories for the S.O., so he spent Saturday morning trawling the Internet in search of other people who may have similar experiences.

While he was not surprised that a lot of people have had problems with the Italian postal service (as evidenced by the first two paragraphs of an entry about a visit to the Italian post office on Valerie Schneider’s Slow Travel blog, via the link the S.O. left in the previous entry’s comment, which you can read by clicking here), he was unprepared to discover that the failings of the Italian postal system is known worldwide.

For starters, check out this YouTube video by an Italian guy, showing the state of a package and its content of memory sticks when it arrived to him from Poste Italiane: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeiYMfOUrXY

Now, we move on to a forum in eBay for buyers and sellers.

First thread asks “What is the issue affecting shipping to Italy?”: http://forums.ebay.com.au/thread.jspa?threadID=600048146

One of the most common comments made by people posting in this thread is that items, even those sent by registered post or with insurance, do not arrive to the buyer because they are stolen by the Italian postal or custom workers.

Next thread states “ITALY: Worst country in the world to ship to? We think so…”: http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000444726&tstart=0&mod=1194425879332

Again, packages including those sent by registered post or have insurance are lost in Italy.

Moving on, here is a forum with a thread titled “Problems shipping items to Italy – Italian buyer wake up!”: http://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv016.cgi?read=92584

May I bring everyone’s attention to Message #18 (sroll about three quarters down the page) posted by Chris Roccati, an Italian, who gives on insight on how the Italian postal system works.

Note also that for packages that do eventually turn up, they often materialise after more than a month of absence.

This is not to say that mail or packages does not go astray in other countries. They do happen, but at a lower incidence in comparison to the packages lost in Italy. Most times, these are packages sent via normal post and without insurance, unlike the registered package we sent to my mother-in-law in Italy (see previous entry here).

Perhaps other people have not had the misfortune that my S.O., my mother-in-law, and these other people who have left posts on eBay or YouTube have had with Poste Italiane. However, there is no denial that for a developed country, Italy has one of the highest incidences of lost insured and registered packages.

Personally, I have never sent or received anything to and from Italy before this year. Yet what I have experienced so far from the Italian postal system has overtaken any past unpleasant experiences I have had with sending from Singapore registered or insured packages from Singapore to Australia, America, Puerto Rico, Spain, Mexico, Russia, Ireland, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

For now, let us leave Indonesia/Bali out of the discussion and look at only the postal systems of developed countries.

Maybe some people think it is too much of me for expecting the postal system of a developed country to have a low or no incidence of missing or unopened delivered packages, especially those that have insurance or were sent by registered post.

Yet it is difficult that I do not have such expectations. Especially when you know that I grew up in Singapore, a developed country where SingPost, the Singapore postal system, operates like clockwork.

You know that an insured or registered package sent with SingPost will arrive intact and within 10 days at its international destination. Similarly, someone sending an insured or registered package from another country to Singapore is assured that the recipient will receive everything in perfect condition within 10 days.

Want another example of how well the Singapore postal system works? Try sending mail or packages via normal post with incomplete addresses. If you have a return address, you will find the undelivered mail or package at your return address within three to 14 working days (depending on the destination and processing times required in both countries), with a clear reason why SingPost was unable to deliver it. To top it off, there is no additional charge for returning the mail or package to you.

Still want another example? Try sending registered mail or packages with SingPost, whether within Singapore or to other countries. Two days later, turn up at any branch with the receipt for the registered article and enquire about its status. The staff will be able to tell you after a few quick clicks on the computer or a short phone call.

At this point, there will be people who exclaim, “Of course things, like the postal service, in Singapore work; it is a developed country!”

Exactly my point, or esattamente as the Italians will say it. So why do things like the postal system in Italy, a developed country, not work?

That is why in the previous Postal Woes entry, I threw in my experience with Pos Indonesia, the postal system of Indonesia, a developing (as economists describe it) country.

Recall that I received a registered package, still sealed and in pristine condition, within 10 days after it was sent out. Also recall that I mentioned this was not our first experience of sending and receiving packages via Pos Indonesia. Even without insurance or registered post, the packages arrived, still sealed with the contents intact, at their destination within 10 days of delivery.

At the end, the S.O. nailed the problem at its head: the problem likes with the people working in the Italian postal system, for they are the ones responsible for missing packages or packages delivered with missing contents.

With this comes another question: what drives these people to steal from the mail? Obtaining ‘forbidden’ goods or things that they could otherwise ill afford? Or monetary gains from reselling the items that they extract from the packages?

While I am convinced that a registered package of dirty old socks sent to my mother-in-law in Mestre, Italy will arrive intact, I have a sneaky feeling that even dirty old socks will help keep the feet of at least one postal worker warm during the cold Italian winter.

We are still crossing our fingers that somehow, my some kind of miracle, my mother-in-law will soon find a postal worker arriving at her apartment with the package containing 12 bottles of unopened Tiger Balm ointment.

That would be the best Christmas present that Poste Italiane can give to my Italian family, and me, this year.

One would think that being a developing country (as economists describe it), the Indonesian postal system may be unreliable (i.e. mail/packages lost or opened).

That was my impression of the country’s postal system when I first sent mail from Singapore to the S.O. in Bali, some time in early 2006 before I moved here to be with him. The S.O. also had the same impression then, when he had to send packages to me.

We were both proven wrong when all times, our mail and packages arrived between four to seven days of posting. Still intact, still sealed. Further, these mails were sent via normal post, not registered mail.

Just today, a registered package from my mother in Singapore arrived, still sealed and unopened, eight days after she sent it. The postman even checked with our maid that yours truly really did reside at the address written on the package.

So we know that in Bali, the standard and service of the postal system is on par with the Singapore postal service.

In stark contrast, we cannot say the same about the Italian postal service. According to the S.O., mail and packages sent from places within Italy sometimes do not arrive at their destination. If they do arrive, they could be damaged or even have missing items.

This was demonstrated very well when we shipped two boxes of personal items from Italy to Bali. The boxes were made of thick cardboard, similar to those used by DHL for their deliveries. Both boxes were sealed by the S.O. with loads of tape before we handed them over to the Italian postal service, about three days before our departure from Italy.

Three weeks later, when we arrived at the area post office branch in Bali to collect both boxes, they here handed to us in transparent, sealed plastic bags. On closer inspection, we noticed that one box had been a slit on the left side of the lid while the other just seemed particularly battered.

According to the postal worker, the boxes arrived in Indonesia in that condition, and were passed on to Bali as is for delivery to the recipient. On reaching home, we found items missing from the box that was slit.

You can imagine the fury that the S.O. felt then toward the Italian postal service and its workers.

Adding further insult is the fact that a registered package that we sent to my mother-in-law from Singapore did not arrive at her home in Italy. Sealed and sent on October 5, the whereabouts of the box remains a mystery more than one month later.

The box contained 12 bottles of Tiger Balm ointment, a major pain reliever for my 75-year-old mother-in-law who suffers from frequent muscle aches, and which was declared in the forms for registered mail.

However, we figured that the heavy weight of the box might have aroused curiosity among the Italian postal workers, who then opened it in the hopes of finding something of material value that could be kept for their own use or resold for cash.

We can only guess about the fate of the 12 bottles, for Tiger Balm is not a common item found in Italian shops. We can only surmise that it has been discarded for its ‘worthlessness’ instead of being delivered, sans its packaging.

Why does Italy – a country in the European Union, a country that is considered developed – have such an unreliable postal system?

Why do the postal workers steal even from their fellow countrymen (packages sent within the country)?

Are they paid so little or are working conditions so terrible that they have to resort to petty crime?

This is not behaviour that anyone would expect from the postal system and workers of a developed country.

If even the Indonesian postal system can deliver standards expected from a developed country, why can Italy not do the same?

A developed country with an untrustworthy postal system hints of many ills in its political system. Even all the natural beauty of Italy cannot make up for its internal problems.

That is why its citizens who can leave the country do so, and people from other countries who refuse to live with such failings refuse to stay long there.