My partner-in-crime ! I salute your honour and honesty !

During my university days, one of my best buddies was an architectural student. We seem to have many similarities. Yes, he and I went back a long way. We've done many things, been to many places, seen many for our time .

We've walked passed a college pub, peeked into an opened store room and carried a massive beer empty beer barrel on our back and walked home about half a kilometer away and carried it up three flights of stair-case and wondered next morning how in heaven's name we could carry that heavy stuff all the way.

We've got involved in a motor accident late in the night and got away from the strong arms of the law because he used his charm to chat-up the policewoman who was handling our case at the site of the accident. The accident ? He ran into the back of an ambulance who was carrying another accident victim !

I could go on with our deeds or misdeeds.

Anyway , on graduation, he came back and became an architect with the Public Works Department. After a few years of working . we met up and update each other on our life.

On our first such meeting, he told me he had resigned from the job . Reason ? He could not stand the pressure from contractors who wanted to pay him off to be lenient on many of the construction project.

He was taking charge of a few project then -- schools , hospitals and so on. This was in the late 80s. He was beginning to lose sleep because he rejected these pay-off. He was threatened. He suffered some mysterious 'happenings'.

Until he came to an easy decision of resigning. He started his own small company and had to work doubly hard. But he said, his conscience is clear and clean. He would rather handle small projects, even designing public toilets BUT he doesn't want to die knowing that the buildings he built was collapsing because of his weaknesses for easy money. My friend---I salute you !



So why am I writing this ? Its the news of the collapsed stadium. I'm not saying anything but consider the collapsed hospitals, the leaking Parliament House, the Court Building, the Naval Training Depot, the school computer labs , the cracking fly-overs ---aren't this too much to be coincidental !

Really , I just had to write this, because precious human life is at stake here................