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Trapped in the Tropics

In 2014 Tim Goldring was sentenced to 7 years for Conspiracy to Cheat, in Singapore’s notorious Changi Prison, an institution where corporal punishment by caning is a bi-weekly event and capital punishment, the death sentence by hanging still endures.

Locked up 23 hours a day in small, shabby cells with squat toilets, where inmates sleep and eats on the concrete floor.

What is the dystopian regime he has fallen into?

Who are his cell mates?

Where does a man go to in his own mind to survive?

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CHAPTERS SUMMARY

PRESS HEADLINE IN SINGAPORE 14TH JUNE 2014

~ FOLLOWING A POLICE RAID on his business in 2010, 3 years investigation and a 1-year trial, in 2014 the author is found guilty in the State Court of Singapore of Conspiracy to Cheat.

~ HE IS SENTENCED TO 7 YEARS in Singapore’s notorious Changi Prison Complex, a maximum-security facility housing 11,000 inmates.

~ HE IS INDUCTED INTO PRISON; in less than 24 hours, following a violent reaction resulting from a misunderstood gesture from another inmate, he is placed in solitary confinement.

PRESS HEADLINE IN SINGAPORE 14TH JUNE 2014

~ IN THE DARKNESS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, without access to water 16 hours a day, the fear and anxiety of the last 4 years finally takes its toll and he falls dangerously ill.

~ LYING PRONE ON HIS STRAW MAT on the concrete floor, an emergency doctor is called who diagnosis a severe stage 3 hyper-tension crisis.

~ TOO SICK TO BE MOVED , hallucinating and barely able to eat, he is cared for by Mathew Baba, a young deeply committed and dedicated Filipino nurse who slowly brings him back to health.

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT CELL - FROM A SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR

~ STILL IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT and slowly recovering, the author repeatedly request a book to read and is denied.

~ RATIONALIZING AND ARGUING HIS REQUEST, a duty officer finally relents and one day his food hatch drops open and a book appears.

~ ANTICIPATING A LITERARY OR POPULAR BOOK, he finds he has been given a Bible, which evokes a series strong memories and experiences from his early childhood in the 1950’s. Surprised, irritated and then intrigued he begins to read it from “The Beginning….”

IMAGE CREATED BY ARWA ALZAHRANI

~ STILL IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, much of the time in darkness, he realizes he can evoke powerful and strong memories of his childhood.

~ HE CALLS THIS “RE-MEMBERING”; it becomes a palliative for his sickness of body and mind. In the darkness and isolation his senses heighten and his memories become a visceral reality.

~ ARRIVING AT THE POINT IN HIS YOUNG LIFE IN 1960 when his father, who is a royal naval engineer in Portsmouth dockyard is seconded to Singapore dockyard. The family move from England to Singapore and do not return until 1968.

~ THE TROPICAL ISLAND WHERE HE RAN FREE AS A BOY, is now his place of detention and incarceration. Alone in the darkness of his cell, he smiles at life’s irony and for the first time realizes that life moves with motiveless necessity.

THE AUTHOR AGED 7 AND HIS FAMILY ARRIVING IN SINGAPORE IN 1960

~ AFTER A WEEK IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, he realises he is becoming “dumbed down”; he fears his mind is adapting his environment to “normal” and realises he must struggle to resist this.

~ PARTIALLY RECOVERED, he is escorted from his cell to visit the prison doctor who assures him his hypertension is under control and he has suffered no permanent illness.

~ PROFOUNDLY GARTEFUL TO MATHEW BABA his Filipino nurse, he recalls the strong spirit and goodness of Overseas Filipino Workers and recalls his invite to “The Maids Tea Party.”

INSIDE A CELL BLOCK - FROM A SKETCH BY THE AUTHOR

~ HE CONTINUES “RE-MEMBERING” and recalls how in 1962 his mother broke the “whites only” rule in one of Singapore’s colonial bastions.

~ HE HAS AN EPIPHANY. Realising prison is someone else’s idea of reality means it's not real; he needs to create his own reality, needs a “new, big idea” to survive.

~ HE RECIVES HIS FIRST VISIT from the British High Commission.

~ HE HAS AN INTREVIEW WITH the Operating Commander of his prison block regarding his violent attack on another inmate. He is allowed out of his cell for 20 minutes exercise.

IMAGE CREATED BY ARWA ALZAHRANI

~ WAITING FOR NEWS OF THE INVESTIGATION into his assault, his anxiety and fear rocket. A guilty verdict by the prison board portends terrible consequences.

~ THE NEW BIG IDEA HE KNOWS HE NEEDS to survive manifests in a form he could not imagine. It is a revelation, effecting him physically, mentally, emotionally.

~ HE IS INFORMED BY THE OPERATING COMMANDER the prison will not take action against him for the assault.

~ HE IS REMINDED BY THE OC he has filed an appeal at the High Court and pending $50,000 extra bail could be released.

IMAGE CREATED BY ARWA ALZAHRANI

~ THE AUTHOR IS RELEASED FROM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT and shares a cell with two other long term “responsible inmates.

~ HE GETS TO KNOW HIS NEW CELL MATES and is astonished by their back-stories and is introduced to the terrible indictment that drugs wrought on society.

~ HE EXPERIENCES THE INMATE CODE OF ‘SHARING’ and is moved by the generosity of those who have so little, still give.

~ HE RE-MEMBERS HIS CHILDHOOD IN SINGAPORE and the Malay long house of an extended family where he played as a boy.

SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR IN HIS CELL READING - BY INMATE AND TATTOO ARTIST ‘CHIN’

~ HE RECIEVES HIS FIRST PRISON HAIRCUT and experiences the daily routines of inmates.

~ HE VIVIDLY RECALLS HIS TRIP TO RUSSIA a few days before the fall of the Berlin wall, the hospitality and kindness of the people he meets and a seemingly endless drunken train journey playing poker with Russian soldiers.

~ REALISING TO DATE HIS LIFE HAS BEEN MAGICAL, he has an insight into what “death” could mean.

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~ AFTER ALMOST A MONTH THE AUTHOR finally receives a letter from his wife.

~ HE IS MOVED TO ANOTHER CELL with 3 other inmates; he probes for their back stories. He is permitted to exercise in the prison yard with 100 plus other inmates.

~ HE REMEBERS HIS OLDEST FRIEND FRANCIS, their pursuit of commercial endeavours and their bizarre and humorous adventures in India together.

~ HE ACKNOWLEDGES not for the first time that his stupidity probably tops his intellect and he is at least “part idiot”.

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT BY CANING – SKETCH RENDERED BY THE AUTHOR

~ HE SEES THE RESULT OF CORPORAL PUNISHMENT BY CANING first hand when one of his cellmates receives 15 strokes of the rotan and is horrified.

~ HE WITNESSES AN INMATES DEATH in the prison yard when an inmate suffers a fatal aneurysm.

~ THE CELL BLOCK IS LOCKED DOWN when an inmate attempts suicide.

~ HE IS RELEASED TO PREPARE FOR HIS HIGH COURT APPEAL after 3 months when his family manage to arrange his extra $50,000 bail.

THE EXTRNAL PEREMITER OF CHANGI PRISON – SKETCH RENDERED BY THE AUTHOR

Trapped in the Tropics

LISTEN TO THE BOOK

CHAPTERS SUMMARY

LISTEN TO
THE BOOK