Singapore no longer a clean city, says regular visitor

• Clivebenss

  6 Jan 12, 08:14

  Jan 6, 2012 - ST Forum

  I HAVE been visiting Singapore for over 10 years and in the past two years I have noticed a steady decline in the state of cleanliness of the environment.

  I used to sing the praises of Singapore as a modern and clean country. However, the amount of rubbish littering housing blocks and common areas makes such claims dishonest.

  While jogging around Chinese Garden, I found piles of discarded plastic bags, bottles and other rubbish strewn by the lake side, within sight of rubbish bins.

  Every morning, I go to the bottom of my tower block and find fresh piles of trash.

  This problem needs to be tackled at source: The proliferation of plastic rubbish is overwhelming and merely printing 'Reduce, Recycle, Re-use' on plastic bags that are given out like confetti will do nothing to reduce consumption.

  A plastic bag has an average use life of 20 minutes but persists in the environment for hundreds of years. A system of charging for bags should be introduced. As a small city state, Singapore is in a position to enact a rigorous and efficient waste reduction and recycling programme to regain its reputation as a clean city.

  Simon Grange

• dragg

  6 Jan 12, 09:38

  the cleaners probably cant cope with the extra rubbish generated by the extra 2 million odd foreigners.

   

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 10:05

  foreigners are not the only people littering..

  i've seen parents commanding their children to leave their garbage on the floor, and throw it around...

  these are the next generation of litterbugs

• dragg

  6 Jan 12, 10:23

  Originally posted by the Bear:

  foreigners are not the only people littering..

  i've seen parents commanding their children to leave their garbage on the floor, and throw it around...

  these are the next generation of litterbugs

  i mean our usual cleaners can cope with locals litterbugs.  but not cant cope anymore coz we added 2 million more.

   

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 10:33

  Originally posted by dragg:

  i mean our usual cleaners can cope with locals litterbugs.  but not cant cope anymore coz we added 2 million more.

   

  actually, a change in attitude and upbringing will change the littering situation...

  you don't see so much litter in super-crowded places like Tokyo..

  and if the locals do not litter, the foreigners will follow suit..

• Clivebenss

  6 Jan 12, 10:36

  Originally posted by the Bear:

  actually, a change in attitude and upbringing will change the littering situation...

  you don't see so much litter in super-crowded places like Tokyo..

  and if the locals do not litter, the foreigners will follow suit..

  actually Sg have more foreigners than locals at any one time (inclusive of visitors to Sg).

  so who follow who?

  

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 10:38

  Originally posted by Clivebenss:

  actually Sg have more foreigners than locals at any one time (inclusive of visitors to Sg).

  so who follow who?

  

  true true..

  but then, a correct set of values would tell you to do the right thing even when others are not...

• Clivebenss

  6 Jan 12, 10:41

  Originally posted by the Bear:

  true true..

  but then, a correct set of values would tell you to do the right thing even when others are not...

  so many 3rd world becoming residents here plus unruly tourists no matter how the locals try, it will be futile. Bear in mind we are paying taxes to clean their shits.

  

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 10:46

  Originally posted by Clivebenss:

  so many 3rd world becoming residents here plus unruly tourists no matter how the locals try, it will be futile. Bear in mind we are paying taxes to clean their shits.

  

  well, we as locals can do the right thing... then we have the moral high ground to tell off the foreigners..

  but seems like the locals are trying their hardest to become worse than the worst of the foreigners

• Dalforce 1941

  6 Jan 12, 10:48

  Originally posted by Clivebenss:

  I HAVE been visiting Singapore for over 10 years and in the past two years I have noticed a steady decline in the state of cleanliness of the environment.

  No choice, more and more aliens. It's not their country, so they don't care. Just litter lor.

• dragg

  6 Jan 12, 10:53

  values?

  do we teach that at school?

  the japs teach and make sure everyone practice it from young.  their æ°‘æ—�æ„�识 is very strong.

  here our govt are only interested in making more money.

  we have little or no values to talk about.  we have no identity and sense of belonging.  in short we have shit!!!

• Dalforce 1941

  6 Jan 12, 10:55

  Originally posted by dragg:

  we have little or no values to talk about.  we have no identity and sense of belonging.  in short we have shit!!!

  It is due to the problem of minority over majority. That's why I want to open the issue.

  But how come this thread suddenly linked to the issue?

• Clivebenss

  6 Jan 12, 10:59

  Originally posted by Dalforce 1941:

  No choice, more and more aliens. It's not their country, so they don't care. Just litter lor.

  Even Singaporeans are civic minded, the majority of 3rd world unruly foreigners overwhelmed. It's going to be a slippery road downhill.

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 11:01

  Originally posted by dragg:

  values?

  do we teach that at school?

  the japs teach and make sure everyone practice it from young.  their æ°‘æ—�æ„�识 is very strong.

  here our govt are only interested in making more money.

  we have little or no values to talk about.  we have no identity and sense of belonging.  in short we have shit!!!

  you DO NOT teach values at school

  what the hell?

  parents are there for f**k??

  sheesh!!

• elindra

  6 Jan 12, 11:03

  The sad thing is that I have seen little kids tell their parents that it is wrong to leave the litter behind and the parents still have the cheek to tell the kids it's ok, someone will clean up after them -_-"

  It's ppl like these that make me sick 

• Clivebenss

  6 Jan 12, 11:05

  Originally posted by elindra:

  The sad thing is that I have seen little kids tell their parents that it is wrong to leave the litter behind and the parents still have the cheek to tell the kids it's ok, someone will clean up after them -_-"

  It's ppl like these that make me sick 

  might be FTs.

  they even shit in public pools.

  

• the Bear

  6 Jan 12, 11:12

  here's an observation from a long time ago...

  there was a SAF family day at the chinese garden... being SAF family day, you will not find any foreigners there.. and also it was at a time when there weren't so many foreigners here yet...

  i went past there before the family day.. the place was nice although everyone knew the chinese garden was going to be renovated after the family day...

  then on the day itself, the chinese garden was packed.. really packed...

  after the family day festivities were over, i passed the place.. and saw the whole place literally COVERED in trash... you almost could not see the grass, the lawns.. the whole place was full of plastic bags, wrappers, bottles, miscellaneous litter..

  no.. you can't place all the blame on the foreigners when local people are horrific litterbugs..

  who cannot seem to be able to teach values to their children since they have none themselves...

  personal responsibility is sorely lacking in people these days.. and this is one of the results...

• elindra

  6 Jan 12, 11:16

  Originally posted by Clivebenss:

  might be FTs.

  they even shit in public pools.

  

  I wish I can say is FT but those I saw are 100% Singaporeans -_-"

• sbst275

  6 Jan 12, 11:18

  ownself people did it blame others..

  and others will follow just wat the locals do.. thinking it as a norm

• dragg

  6 Jan 12, 11:23

  i better clarify.

  my initial comment werent intended to blame it on the FTs and absolve locals.

  i only meant to say our current cleaners can cope with local litterbugs but cant cope anymore with 2 million more foreign litterbugs joining us.

  i.e. both locals and foreigners are equally to blame.

   

• nfshp253

  6 Jan 12, 11:31

  I can proudly say that I have never littered in my entire life.

• Lazybumy

  6 Jan 12, 12:33

  Toyko maybe 70-80% local, 20-30 foreigner including tourist. SG most likely 30-40% local, 60-70% foreigner including tourist. How to compare? Last time SG is maybe like Toyko 70-80% local, 20-30 foreigner, so can be very clean like toyko. Anyway the TS mention Chinese Garden, i thought nowadays this place is mainly for foreigner as I went there a few times, the visitor is like 90% foreigner and 10% local most of the time.
• PJ_Quek

  6 Jan 12, 12:40

  Singaporeans also litter.

• M the name

  6 Jan 12, 13:00

  Originally posted by dragg:

  values?

  do we teach that at school?

  the japs teach and make sure everyone practice it from young.  their æ°‘æ—�æ„�识 is very strong.

  here our govt are only interested in making more money.

  we have little or no values to talk about.  we have no identity and sense of belonging.  in short we have shit!!!

   

  What do you mean the Japs didn't litter? They litter the world with shit called Naruto the Pang Sai and this kind of litter even carry an message to play truant in school and be a gay, you sure that Japs ' "Nationality Consciousness" is still there in their society ?
  

• dragg

  6 Jan 12, 13:07

  Originally posted by M the name:

   

  What do you mean the Japs didn't litter? They litter the world with shit called Naruto the Pang Sai and this kind of litter even carry an message to play truant in school and be a gay, you sure that Japs ' "Nationality Consciousness" is still there in their society ?
  

  i am not sure because i didnt say it.