David Wiegers 2020 calendar takes us to Singapore, where Abraham Lincoln stands proudly in the courtyard of the Parkview Square building. Except he doesn’t. At least not when I was there.
Parkview Square is an elite (read: expensive) office building in downtown Singapore. In additional to executive suites it houses the Consulate of Oman and the Embassies of the United Arab Emirates, Austria, and Mongolia. The art deco style building has a beautiful open plaza that has been compared to Piazza San Marco in Venice. For a while, the plaza hosted a stunning array of bronze statues of world figures, including Sun Yat-sen, Salvador Dali, Mozart, Chopin, Picasso, Rembrandt, Shakespeare, Plato, Dante, Einstein, Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln. Key words – For a while.
I arrived in Singapore in December 2018 after a small ship (200 passengers) took me from Hong Kong, through various stops in the Philippines, the Malaysian part of Borneo, and Brunei. In keeping with my aquarium obsession, one of my first stops was the S.E.A Aquarium on Sentosa Island. Having watched Crazy Rich Asians on the plane, I of course went to see the famous Marine Bay Sands tripartite building, Gardens by the Bay, and the Super Trees. At night I rode the Singapore Flyer Ferris wheel that gives a panoramic view of the city. Not surprisingly, I ate a lot of Chinese and other Asian fusion food.
Having been tipped off in advance by David Wiegers that there was a statue of Lincoln in Singapore, I duly determined which MRT train to take from Chinatown to Parkview Square. Upon arrival I marveled at the collection of modern art statues in the courtyard plaza. There was the odd grouping of five walking men standing on each others shoulders. There was a huge snail with a woman’s head and crown. There were four men dressed in orange standing outside looking into a square cage of bars. There were some more traditional Asian figures. But no Churchill. No Einstein. And definitely no Abraham Lincoln. Thinking maybe I was mistaken to expect them in the plaza I wandered into the breathtakingly expansive lobby where I found four large Salvador Dali sculptures hugging the corners. Still no Lincoln. Ah, there’s a concierge. Alas, she told me that the owners of the building periodically remove the artwork and feature other statues, like the four by Dali inside and the modern pieces outside.
So where was the Lincoln statue, I asked. Oh, she says, it’s probably being stored in the corporate offices in Hong Kong.
Where I had been two weeks before.
So once again I was in a place that had – or was supposed to have – a Lincoln statue and I either missed it or it had been removed. David Wiegers has featured Lincoln statues around the world in his calendar, and despite my having been in almost all the locations, I saw very few of them. Insert “sigh” here.
I do plan to return to some of these places in the (hopefully soon) post-COVID world. I definitely plan to go back to Edinburgh (the January 2020 statue, and where I lived for three months in the past). Others are less likely, but possible. As I write that sentence I realize I haven’t been out of the United States since my trip to Cuba in May of 2019. No wonder I’m feeling the wanderlust. Here’ hoping 2021 will get me back on the road, in the air, on the sea, and on the hunt for Abraham Lincoln (and aquariums) wherever I go.
This is Thanksgiving week in the United States. I find much to be thankful for this year notwithstanding ducking pandemics and feeling the walls edge ever so slowly closer together. Best wishes that all of us may see the silver linings. And please stay home, avoid large gatherings, wash your hands, wear a mask, and stay safe for the time to come where we can all celebrate each other’s existence in person again.
David J. Kent is an avid traveler, scientist, and Abraham Lincoln historian. He is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World as well as two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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One of the many thrills from my most recent 
