Right now there’s so much jazz about littering in Singapore.
They’re clamping down hard on the litterbugs, aiming at humiliating them in hotspots by making them do corrective work, cleaning up and wearing that hideous neon yellow coloured bib.
I remember at the start of my exchange when we were about to head out to Le Queen, the next train was in 20 minutes and we didn’t want to wait at the platform, and M wanted to smoke, so we headed out of the train station and to the bus stop and sat down. She also had a drink in her hand which she finished and conveniently left it there as we were about to go back to the train station.
S shook his head and said, “You’re not in Holland anymore.” M didn’t care. S said, “If you were in Singapore…” then looked at me for help and I nodded. Yup, it’s well known all over the world. We have strict rules for everything.
Bearing in mind this was one of the first few weeks I was there, I was still grumpy about how everything was dirty and smelly and had litter all over the place.
At the end of the night, as M walked next to me, tipsy, she asked loudly, “Is Singapore really suuuuper clean?” I said yes! (Paris and Cergy seriously paled in comparison when it comes to cleanliness.)
Then she said, again, at her usual loud volume, “Why do you need to be sooo clean?”
At that point, it got me thinking, what an absolutely absurd question. Why would anyone want to be dirty? Why would anyone want their country to be filled with litter? Imagine if it’s your house, why would you let others come visit when it’s not cleaned up?
But I couldn’t think of anything nice and smart enough to say. So I struggled with a shrug and said we like being clean.
I couldn’t understand any bit of why she would think that way. It’s just crazy. It’s ridiculous. I wanted to go home to my clean and green country, with bins everywhere. I didn’t want to walk under bridges that stank of pee. I didn’t want to be in a place where people jump the gates to take the trains for free. There was no order, no comfort, no cleanliness! ARE YOU CRAZY?
But weeks went by and voilà! I fell in love with Paris. True love is unconditional. I loved it for every imperfection it had. Snobbish people, stench, litter, oh là là! All the negative things I once detested, I love now. And I began to see the imperfections as the little quirky things Paris had.
Taking a step back, while I thought M’s question was absurd then, she probably thought we’re like housewives with an obsessive compulsive behaviour. People who have our heads spin with a speck of dust on the shelf.
And now, I share the same idea – Why do we have to be so clean?
And for the record, we may have more trees lining the roads but Europe is definitely more green.
PS: That being said, littering in the beach is a huge no-no because sand is for us to roll around in/walk on barefoot/build sandcastles with! (Haha, Audrey, I’m justifying how I’m not a hypocrit. LOL)
kaya toast 
HAHAHAHA TO THE LAST PARAGRAPH!
Haha. It’s an interesting perspective, but I think I’d have to disagree. Perhaps we’re a bit too anal about it, but I’d really rather that than the opposite. Seeing cigarette butts everywhere and bloody plastic bags all over really pisses me off. Personal responsibility, is that too much to ask? Not to mention the cost of paying people to go pick all the trash up, which then comes out of my tax dollar (or pound, as the case may be). And because it doesn’t get disposed off properly, lots of crap then flows into the various waterways and contributes to the great pacific garbage patch etc, and helps kill wildlife.
Why do we have to be so clean? The level of cleanliness reflects the country/person’s habits/character/upbringing/level of hygiene. But then, love is blind 😉
Littering should include those ‘legal’ form like:
1. leaving leaflets, advert flyers and name cards on parked cars windscreen.
2. leaving same in postboxes and front doors.
whoa whoa. hahaha, love is blind indeed.
yup, i’m not saying i’m for the act of littering because i definitely do not litter and i pick after my friends who conveniently leave things around. which makes it worse when bins are plentiful in singapore. (that, i really can’t understand because bins appear once every 50-100metres!)
just saying i don’t like how it’s so crazily anal, and so out there that they made it clear that the CWO is intended to humiliate litterbugs.
back to the love analogy, if my kid litters i would teach my kid not to. but i wouldn’t take my kid out in front of his friends and yell and then ground the kid and take away his/her allowance. er, loosely translated to that, yes.
aplatedcat highlighted a very important issue.
Point 2 actually poses a security problem as I had realized when my home was the target of an attempted burglary and there were leaflets left on my main gate, which could have indicated to the burglar that no one was home to clear them (even though I was home at that time).
I will support any move to make it illegal to leave leaflets and such at our main door for that reason. It is also a chore to pick up after these nuisance litterbugs.
@ shteo89, lol! I guess the word is moderation, but I can understand why the authorities have to resort to that kind of measures. Let’s put it this way, if one knows that he will be humiliated, he could be deterred from the act, but if he stubbornly does it anyway, then he deserves it.
As for teaching kids, you are one rare parent because from what I regularly see, parents allow their kids (even teenagers) to leave their rubbish wherever they like in public without batting an eyelid. It is a common sight nowadays to see parents admiring their darlings jumping up and down like monkeys on trains, and in supermarkets, let alone teach them about manners.
Yeah, how we behave reflect on our parents too 🙂
littering is detrimental, that is universally accepted. but prevention methods can be adjusted. To even fanthom the thought that we need to be ‘upgraded’ to being shamed in public areas (aka town areas, so reports the news), just reinforces how much the government perceives us like children who cannot control their pee.
Maybe if we (including foreigners) started behaving like adults who can control their pee…
Otherwise, I am sure if our streets are filled with litter and rodents begin their adventure in the open (I think they have already done so in Orchard), there will be another round of complaints.
I will have to stick with the authorities this time round. Poor thing, either way, they can’t win.
Cleanliness is about respect for your surroundings. How can one truly say she loves Paris when she dirties it without a second thought?
Still, for Singapore, I would like us to be clean without the need for the tough anti-littering laws and the armies of road cleaners. Let it come from the heart. Then it will really be something to be proud of.
mm, but i don’t dirty paris. 😉