Landmark fall

7pm yesterday evening, I was in the porch with KF, we were sticking up our new road tax discs (coincidentally both our cars' dates are only 2 days apart). My neighbour was chit-chatting over the gate with another neighbour. Then another neighbour walked over and asked if they'd heard about the Jaya tragedy and she related what she'd heard. Then one of the ladies broke out from the group rushed over to her own porch to inform her husband, and everyone ran in to see if they could catch the news.

KF was busy grumbling about the stupid JPJ stickers from last year that left sticky marks on his windscreen. After he'd finished, I told him what I'd heard the neighbours saying. We strolled in to the house slowly, my mind thinking maybe it was just housewife-chatter (making small things bigger than they are) and remembering that demolition works were ongoing at Jaya, so maybe it was just news of the building being demolished.

Curious and wanting to see pics of the demolition, I opened up Internet Explorer - much faster than waiting for news that you won't know when it'll appear (yea, this is the digital age - info must be immediate, we don't wait for anything). Opened up both The Star and Malaysian Insider, both pretty reliable sources, and true enough a disaster had happened.

I called my mum, who was at the hospital with dad who's recovering from angioplasty surgery, and she said she'd received the news thru sms (both my parents are subscribed to mobile news, their phones constantly beeping with breaking news, very updated they are). I also sms-ed my colleague who uses that road home from work - she was stuck in a 45-minute jam from PJ Hilton to Jaya! Unfortunately I was out having dinner so I couldn't tune in to the news feed.

Coming in to office this morning, hungry for more news (especially after hearing comments from Priscilla Patrick on Mixfm about the incident) I surfed. The best update comes from The Malay Mail with some photos (I think the nearby Menara Bakti must suddenly be inundated with throngs of media hoping to get good aerial views of the site next door). The Nut Graph has very vivid photos too.

Some reports say that the building collapsed due to the heavy machinery (cranes and excavators) on the various floors. First question I thought was : why didn't Malton just use those "demolition bombs" to blow the building down into one neat pool of dust? Handimart did it (I was passing by when I saw the "bombing" happen, pretty cool it was).

Then my next thought was : it's so sad for those construction workers. I've constantly told KF that I pity those construction workers. Last night when we were driving home from dinner in Damansara Perdana, we passed by one of those numerous construction sites, and I saw 3 workers on the 2nd floor painting a wall with the help of a small fluorescent lamp. Some time ago, I was sitting in Kelana Jaya opposite a construction site, waiting for Brothers to finish carpet-ing KF's car, and I noticed how dangerous construction work is. The workers have to hop from one unfinished beam to the next carrying timber, hang precariously over ledges to paint, etc. I think : these Indonesian workers travel here for more money and a better future, highly risking their lives while at it. It's not right. Developers and contractors should be more responsible and really implement site safety. Like, how do they sleep after knowing this has happened on their watch?

And this morning, I was feeling sentimental. Jaya was where my parents used to bring us as kids - I'm sure many people have the same memories. Grocery shopping at Cold Storage, walking down those winding stairs instead of the escalator, buying books in MPH, and at one point of my school life when friendship bands were all the rage, we used to get our stock from this threads store. Many after-school sessions were held in the area, with burgers in McD's and then traipsing over to Jaya just to hang out. It was a cool place to see and be seen. And definitely a place plenty of PJ school students have fond memories of.

Somehow, Jaya didn't deserve to go down embroiled in all these controversy and bad publicity. It should have been demolished elegantly and fuss-free. I guess now with all these "bad energy" surrounding the building, it's gonna take a long while before the development's completed and the people's short-term memories are erased. My honest opinion : they should have left Jaya as it is, maybe just do some refurbishment. The spirit within Jaya seems to be making things difficult for its new owners, huh?