It cannot be coincidence. Nothing this significant ever happens in Singapore by coincidence. What are we talking about? We’re talking about the 6,500 cubic meters of hot air now hovering above town—just at the time when the mainstream media is desperately trying to get every apathetic person all excited about an impending election, finally announced for May 6.True, the aforesaid hot air is cleverly disguised as a helium balloon tethered at Bugis Junction and floating 40 storeys above the ground. It’s emblazoned with the sponsor’s logo in bright red and yellow across the balloon. The said balloon is going to take paid customers up into the air—to view Singapore’s skyline.Skyline? From that height, it will be possible to see the curvature of the earth! Which means it will be high enough to see where the scenic bridge would have been had it not been suddenly abandoned. It will also be high enough to attach a wire joining it and the future ferris wheel, known as the Singapore Flyer. What’s the high-wire for, you ask. For some future television celebrity to do a high-wire walk from one towering contraption to another—to raise funds for some deserving charity.It is also high enough for an enterprising paratrooper to volunteer to set yet another mind-numbing Guinness record for Singapore: The highest jump off a hot air balloon onto a glass roof (the balloon is beside Bugis Junction, remember?)But back to the hot air. If you’ve been making the mistake of paying attention to the reams and reams of election campaign chatter that’s been going on, you will surely notice the amount of hot air that’s being generated. There will certainly be no short supply of hot air to keep the balloon afloat.So be warned: With even more hot air in the days to come, wait, and the balloon could get even bigger and higher. From such a bird’s eye view the excited machinations of the election campaign will surely resemble a molehill rather than a mountain.
