Emotional Roller Coaster of March Ends in Sickness & Southern Africa

This month, it has been an emotional roller coaster to me because of what fell upon the people of the Tohoku region and beyond. Now more than two weeks after that day, the nuclear reactors in Fukushima are still giving hell. As an organisation, Tokyo Power should be held responsible and liable at the very least for providing confusing information on radiation leaks. A huge number of people are bracing up at shelters with more than 10,800 confirmed dead.

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And this roller coaster took a toll on me in the form of bad throat infection with a high fever. Thursday night, I was feeling heavy and dull. By Friday morning, my throat was causing an impossible pain. To prevent it from creating more trouble, I went to a clinic in Tiong Bahru, which I had visited a few times previously. I also thought about seeing Dr. Goh who definitely knew more about this condition of mine. Given my condition, I decided his clinic was too far. Wrong decision. The consultation by the doctor at the TB clinic whom I had met before was professionally done and I liked his examination style that was rather old-fashioned. The problem was that his prescription was not appropriate for my throat condition. I strictly followed the instructions given taking the antibiotic tablets. By Saturday morning, there was no improvement. In fact, it was much worse.

After all, I pushed and kicked myself out of bed and took Bus 961 to visit Dr. Goh’s clinic. It was 9:10 when I arrived. I was much relieved when I saw the OPEN sign when the clinic entered into my view. But it was dark inside and a notice on the door was saying that there would be no morning consultation from 21 to 25 March. I called but there was nobody to answer my enquiry. At this point I started thinking about going to the TB clinic again for a second consultation. After a few minutes, I realised this was 26 March and also the consultation would start only at 9:30. I showed the antibiotics to the doctor who said, “This does not work for your kind of sore throat”. The pain is still with me but the condition is now greatly improved.

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Part Nine of Years of Renewal deals with Southern Africa, notably Namibia and Rhodesia. I am reading this part of the last volume of Henry Kissinger’s memoirs with keener interest than otherwise. So far away from where I am, but Rhodesia would become Zimbabwe. An occasional visitor to Singapore and whom I saw at Ngee Ann City some months ago, Robert Mugabe, would be at the helm.