The Skeptical Optimist

When I first met Frenchman Franck Ibanez and his Singaporean wife Wang Meng Ngee and they told me they lived on a boat, I thought they were slightly crazy. Then they told me that their eventual plan was to sail around the world with their two young children and I began to seriously wonder about their sanity.

Honestly, most of us who have the privilege and responsibility of caring for more than one child under the age of 5 will tell you what a challenge it is even on dry land! So what more on a 12.5 metre long boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean?

As I got to know them though, I began to understand what Franck meant when he said it was a lifestyle choice. His rationale was that he wanted the world to be his home, the sea to teach its lessons to his children and a life that was pared down to the basic essentials. After all, there’s not much space for frivolity or luxury on a small boat that has to be stocked with the supplies for sea voyages lasting up to 3 weeks.

It was difficult not to be inspired by this almost romantic vision, while simultaneously feeling a little worried about how they were going to meet the unforeseen and unknown on their 2 to 3 year trip from Singapore to Europe.

Talking to Suzanne Jung and Steven Chia in the studio, Meng talked about how her journey began, “I thought well I’ve always liked to travel and what better way to do it than on a boat, because when you take the aeroplane, it’s faster but you don’t see as many places. On a boat you go to places like Chagos island where there is nobody there and you can’t take aeroplane to be there and you can just be free for a month with nobody telling you what to do, you’re able to fish, you’re able to swim on a whole beach for yourself.”

Franck and Meng spent about 4 years at the Raffles Marina in Singapore, planning their trip, preparing their boat and making babies. They set off for their grand adventure a little over a year ago, when their daughters Carmen and Julie were 4 and 2, and have sailed from Singapore all the way to South Africa.

Besides getting dengue in the Maldives and have their boat burgled in Mayotte, they seemed to be having a whale of a time. We kept in touch via their blog (www.constantesingapour.com) and the occasional long distance phonecall. They told of adventures with sharks, catching enormous snapper fish, meeting a wide range of sailing friends, braving storms at sea and dropping anchor at unspoiled tropical islands – things we could only dream of in our small little city lives.

Meng and the girls came back to Singapore recently to spend the Lunar New Year holidays with her family. Sun-tanned and happy from her seafaring life, Meng talked about how their unusual life had changed the girls: “I would say that I have managed to see how they developed in their self confidence that I don’t see in land children. They are very cautious when they are climbing on to things. Thankfully we haven’t had them fall overboard yet, they are really careful. They know where are their boundaries.”

The family intends to head to Argentina next where they might stop for a year or so before continuing on to North America and eventually to France.

(A shorter version of this article was published in the TODAY weekend edition 24-25 January 2009)

Tags: children, friends, sailing

Kermit was right – it’s not easy being green. And before you think I mean that in some flippant way, let me assure you that I’m dead serious about it. When I first met my husband in the States, he was vegan and as an omnivorous Chinese woman in her early 20s, I thought he was quirky, slightly mad and definitely a little bit too committed to the cause. Some 7 to 8 years later, he’s now living in Singapore with me and he’s a less than reluctant omnivore. Definitely, it’s my fault – from the ricotta cheese and gelato in Italy to the scallop in New Orleans – he says watching me eat was just too much! Plus my mother-in-law is an amazing cook, and my father-in-law likes to barbecue! mmmm… sausages!

But recently, I’ve been giving some serious thought to becoming at least part time vegetarian (yes, that term exists!) and maybe even extending this to my boys… This is really difficult, because it’s one thing become vegetarian yourself but it’s another thing figuring out how to give two energetic growing toddlers enough protein, calcium and nutrients.

Plus, I really do love meat! I’m not a bleeding heart vegetarian, I believe in the circle of life philosophy – but with responsibility and humanity. So that means that while I don’t think it’s unethical to kill a cow, fish, chicken, pig, etc to eat it (although I respect the beliefs of the ethical or religious vegetarians)- I do believe that it’s completely unethical to industrially farm these animals and subject them to cruel and unusual forms of housing and death. Industrially raised pigs, cattle and poultry live in abysmal conditions, often overcrowded, overfed and injected with antibiotics to prevent diseases that are a result from these conditions.

Sticking to this view, it makes it really hard to eat meat unless it’s free range and organic, something that’s almost non-existent in Singapore unless it’s for a very high price, which basically makes it untenable. Honestly, I can’t afford to pay $60 for a piece of grass fed steak and shouldn’t have to. Which makes the alternative? Well, going green in the most fundamental sense.

To add to that, there’s the environmental imperative. Recently I interviewed a Geography professor who had done extensive research into lifestock and he confirmed my suspicion that one of the easiest ways for you to reduce your carbon footprint is not just to ditch that fuel guzzler of a car, switch off the lights and airconditioning unit and use less plastic – it’s actually to eat less meat. Cattle produce the most greenhouse gases! More than cars apparently… and that’s not taking into account their waste which pollutes waterways. Plus, they actually use up arable land that could be used to grow grain and vegetables to feed parts of the world populations that isn’t getting enough food. It’s quite a serious situation.

But how to run on this campaign in a food loving, food crazy country? No one is going to be able to tell you not to eat that plate of ba chor mee, black angus steak, panfried foie gras, pork knuckle or ba kwa. Not to mention mutton soup, ayam penyet and beef rendang. There would be riots! And don’t think that bento box of sushi is immune too, research shows overfishing could lead to a total depletion of oceanic fish in twenty years or so. So it’s quite a conundrum and really sometimes thinking like this can make your head swim, because how are one person or one family’s choices going to make a difference in a situation that seems like it’s headed to the dogs anyway? A more appropriate response might be: eat all the foie gras that you can right now because it’s all going to pot anyway, and you might not be able to afford it 10 years from now!

Right.

So in my household we are making simple decisions – red meat once a month, chicken once a week, farm raised fish or seafood twice a week and vegetarian pasta dishes or stews and stirfries with rice the rest of the time with added protein from cheese (not completely innocent I know, but hey my kids are under 5 and their bones are growing), eggs, tofu, lentils, beans and chickpeas.

It’s not an ideal situation, but it’s working for me. Although when we eat out at the hawker centre we do eat the normal wanton mee and chicken rice.

Still I’ve discovered old dishes that I used to cook to impress my once vegan husband, drawing out of the veggie cookbooks I bought for romance. It’s an uphill struggle, I’ll admit, I’m a sausage-bacon-lobster-foie gras-steak-otoro sushi-hamburger kind of girl… but hey, it’s not just the health of the planet and the humane treatment of animals – it’s after all also our health as well. Still, I have to admit, once a month we’ll go on a date without the kids and just have a steak or hamburger or plate of wonderfully expensive sashimi. After all, you only live once! What do you think?

Tags: feeding children, good food, omnivorism, vegetarianism

I just came back from a 2 night holiday in Bangkok – just a chance to get away from Singapore and absconding from my parental duties just for a bit. Bangkok is such a city of contradictions; some of its obvious downsides include the infamous traffic and pollution, but really the Thais make style, elegance and hospitality seem so effortless.

I stayed at the Siam @Siam Design Hotel, a stunner of a 24 storey building done up in a contemporary Thai style with eclectic furniture, sculpture, art and wonderful wall murals in an abstract impasto style. The colour scheme was warm, rich and yet not claustrophobic, even with modern touches like bare concrete flooring and exposed pipes. The whole design theme was daring yet inviting and comfortable, really unique. And of course the service… I don’t even need to get started there.

Another place that really impressed me was the Oriental Bangkok, I honestly don’t think that any hotel in Singapore holds a candle to an establishment that definitely ranks as one of the great hotels of the world. Just such effortless (again) elegance without the stuffiness that I see at some top hotels in Singapore. My girlfriend and I just went there for the high tea and we were really impressed with the delicate pastries, impressive selection of teas and the quiet, unobtrusive service. It’s just little touches like having a warmer for your teapot so your tea never gets cold… Perhaps, I am just unable to afford such luxuries in Singapore so I can’t really compare.

Of course, it wasn’t all a bed of roses – for one, I felt that I could do without the food courts which cater to tourists and serve watered down versions of Thai classics. But still, minor quibbles.

Bangkok is of course value for money – which is why Singaporeans flock there and why my flight was packed with bargain hunters. But with rising food and fuel prices, one wonders how much longer one can go on these carefree regional jaunts without it starting to hurt the pocket as well. Just today the Thai government has announced an increase in taxi fares in Bangkok, and while a few baht might not mean much to you, it does mean a lot to Thais and does all add up in the end.

The reasons for the recent hikes in food and fuel prices are manifold and complex, having to do with international relations but also in no small part to climate change and our reckless overuse of the planet’s resources. I think for the ordinary person like me, it’s still difficult though, to really see how our every day actions trickle down into our lives and the lives of the people around us. Even jetting off to Bangkok on a fossil fuel consuming plane, or filling my tank (of my extremely fuel-efficient car I have to protest!), or just buying food that has taken an extra long plane ride to get here are all just small steps which lead to more global warming, more pollution. It’s difficult to see what can be done.

I recently finished filming my episodes for a new segment we’re running on Primetime Morning on eco-living called “The Green Wave”. I’ve done one on eco-buildings, which is airing next Wednesday (18 June) at 7.50am and 8.50am (SIN/HK time) – but the other episode I did on eco-food choices (30 June) is really very close to my heart. If you get the chance, read Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” to get an idea of where I’m coming from. It was interesting filming these episodes, to see how architects, farmers, experts are trying to deal with the problems we’ve caused with the planet.

But that’s really all for another blog post… For now I’ll leave you with some advice I got from a geography professor when I asked him how ordinary folks who can’t afford the sometimes astronomical prices of organic food can eat more eco-friendly… and he said, “just eat less meat, it’s the thing you can do that will have the biggest impact”. Well, I’m not vegetarian, but I’ll tell you more about what I found out in the next post and how it’s changing the way I eat!

Tags: bangkok, green thoughts, saving gaia