30th June 2013, Kuala Lumpur.
It was supposed to be the day when the streets of KL were supposed to be sprawling with junkies of the high octane adrenaline seeking kind, like a scene from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.
Imagine a foreigner arriving in KL on Thursday for his long awaited tropical marathon just to be told that all his dream had dematerialized into thin air like a soap bubble. "The race had been postponed due to haze", he would have been told. "What haze, where is the haze?" He would be asking himself. "The skyline looks anytime clearer than any city I have seen and the air is fresher than the New England countryside!"
So the runners were downgraded to tourists. Instead of roaming the streets with the ATPs generating muscle power, they were ushered around with unroofed double decker buses!
It was supposed to be the day when the streets of KL were supposed to be sprawling with junkies of the high octane adrenaline seeking kind, like a scene from Michael Jackson's Thriller music video.
Imagine a foreigner arriving in KL on Thursday for his long awaited tropical marathon just to be told that all his dream had dematerialized into thin air like a soap bubble. "The race had been postponed due to haze", he would have been told. "What haze, where is the haze?" He would be asking himself. "The skyline looks anytime clearer than any city I have seen and the air is fresher than the New England countryside!"
So the runners were downgraded to tourists. Instead of roaming the streets with the ATPs generating muscle power, they were ushered around with unroofed double decker buses!
Though not as sinister as the day the music died (February 3, 1959, when Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and others died in a plane crash), this day is bad enough for us to be embarrassed. To blemish the embarrassment, some running enthusiasts organized an ad-hoc no-frills, no-medals, 21km fun run for them around the usual site of KL's running buffs.
Where is the haze? What haze!
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