Running Wild In Singapore

I want my 5 minutes of fame too

Somebody is paying big bucks for Sir David Attenborough to narrate the two-episode "Wild City", Channel NewsAsia's first documentary on Singapore's wildlife. The first episode will feature the wildlife found in and around the urban sprawl in Singapore, such as civets that take up residence in roof cavities, and wild otters spotted at Marina Reservoir.

Attenborough's voice over has been used in many of the natural history programmes produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. The most expensive documentary series ever made by the BBC - billed as "the ultimate portrait of our planet" - is Planet Earth. In Episode 8, "Cities - Surviving the Human Jungle", Attenborough talks extensively about the rat patrols in New York, New York.

Which means he is amply qualified to cover the rat infestation in Bukit Batok. Apparently the big bucks spent by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on pest controllers like Star Pest Control only resulted in the rodents moving off from the natural hilltop adjacent to a train station to nearby concrete housing blocks, such as Block 165. And since Minister of State Desmond Lee is the member of parliament for the Bukit Batok GRC, he may get to share the limelight with Attenborough, widely considered a national treasure in Britain.

Ms Mok Choy Lin, Vice-President of Programming at Channel NewsAsia said, "I really hope that it's going to reveal a side of Singapore that even locals have never seen before, and that it shows off a wild diversity of wildlife and species that have never been documented before." It is doubtful the rodents will ever get to share the same billing as the civets in roof cavities, and wild otters at Marina Reservoir. And we have had enough television coverage of the rats in parliament.