Youth Park

Without exaggeration, this was the first example of obscene graffito in six and one half years here. Was it the first graffiti sighted anywhere on the island? Fair chance. There might be a whiteboard over in Youth Park that was dedicated for the purpose and wiped clean nightly by the work crews. Spelling all A OK in this instance, though perhaps the joining of the last two consonants might be questionable. (The roundness of the “c” was terminated by the vertical of the “k” — hurried hand perhaps and anxious.) Blue marker, front row middle table on the transplanted Mr Teh Tarik beneath the market. Batam lasses sat in the rows behind there waiting for work opportunities and sometimes cruising. A frustrated Malay unable to step up to the plate? Certainly betraying frustration from some direction. 

         They must have constructed Youth Parks of this form here in the early-mid-term Eastern Bloc. Years now going by on the bus to Kinokuniya the sight had pricked the eyes. There might have been two separate occasions when youth of some description were found there behind the wire. Possibly cooler evenings drew some, though one did wonder. Basketball hoops, blocks for skaters, a red double-decker bus — the ESCAPE segment adjacent was incorporated.