In Glory of the Living

I have not met JP since after Sec 4. She now works in the World Bank and calls Washington DC her home. Through just sheer coincidence, I happened to mention my trip to US to a mutual friend, WH, who suggested that I might be able to get in touch with JP. Through the power of email, here I am today, at the World Bank having lunch with JP. She looks exactly the same as I remember her during our school days, perhaps with more white hair, (and a PhD to boot) but same hairstyle, and now doing work to help the African states. A further coincidence, JP had, 2 years ago, brought a group of African educators to Singapore, and arising from that trip, had edited a book on education with Prof L Tan and Prof Lee SK. Small world indeed. Of course, we caught up with news about our friends, who is doing what and where, who is married, not married or divorced, who has retired, and who is still in the grind and mill. We reminisced over old times as JP brought out her old photo album when I was at her home the day before.

JP hosted me to a lunch at the World Bank today and used the opportunity to fill me in on the functions of the World Bank. Quite proudly she highlighted this sculpture at the atrium, built to commemorate a World Bank project that successfully eradicated riverbank blindness caused by the tsetse fly. Many monuments are built in glory of the dead who gave up their lives in wars. We should have more monuments in glory of the living, those lives saved because of the good work done by people with the compassion and know-how to help their fellow beings.