Locksmiths and real estate agents sticking ads all over the place

Posted on May 12, 2013 by gdy2shoez

From ‘ Illegal ads a sticking point for HDB residents’, 12 May 2013, article by Lim Yan Yang and Lim Yi Han, Sunday Times

Now that Singapore’s “Sticker Lady” has been sentenced in court for mischief, some Housing Board residents are wondering if they will see the end of a sticky problem they have been living with for years. They say locksmiths, real estate agents and providers of all sorts of services paste small advertisements and labels all over the place, and seem to get away with it.

Tampines resident Francis Cheng contacted The Sunday Times and said he has put up with ads and calling cards that have been stuck to his meter box, doorbell, gate and on the railings along the common corridor. “It’s a nuisance. I peel it off and a few days later they paste it back,” said the 40-year-old business manager. Competing businessmen sometimes leave layers of overlapping stickers that are just unsightly, he added.

…The police website refers the public with such “non-police matters” to relevant agencies such as town councils and the LTA….Technically, the law has penalties for unauthorised advertisements, under the Vandalism Act and the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act.

But lawyers said the courts are unlikely to act against businesses that do not adhere to the rules unless home owners pursue the matters themselves by lodging a magistrate’s complaint. “Some might argue that it’s a slippery slope: if you don’t arrest them, they will paste more stickers,” said criminal lawyer Amolat Singh. “But the courts operate under the de minimis principle, which means the law does not concern itself with trivialities.”

He said the law must strike a balance between the fact that advertisements promote a commercial service – unlike in the Sticker Lady case – and that most people do not view them as mischief or vandalism.

Most of the locksmiths, plumbers and air-conditioning repairmen The Sunday Times called declined to talk about their ads but one argued that his sticker has helped many people. The 40-year-old locksmith, who declined to be named, said: “Those who complain are those who haven’t had their door spoilt or forgotten their keys.”

Your grandfather meter box is it

I have to admit I once benefited from a vandal’s calling card stuck on a letter box. My door was jammed and I had no one to call. It was, for my intents and purposes, an emergency and I remain grateful enough to close one eye to rival locksmiths tearing each others’ stickers or sticking their ads on top of each other outside my house as long as it’s not on my gate. Property flyers on the other hand, are a downright nuisance, the only consolation being sometimes they come with eye candy amidst the eyesore, on which I’d waste a couple of seconds of my life ogling before tossing it away for recycling.

Need a house NOW

So we have one group of people running foul of Vandalism laws, another being annoying Litterbugs, with neither getting arrested for their deeds, while a graffiti artist with better aesthetic taste when it comes to stickers gets charged for mischief and has to serve 240 hours of community service. If Samantha Lo had inserted an additional line in her Press Until Shiok stickers advertising swimming lessons and a fake number, maybe the law would consider her actions ‘trivial’ as well.

I can’t say, however, that MOST people don’t mind such rampant defacement. Maybe some folks like myself do benefit from sticky ads, whether it’s breaking into their own house urgently or selling their homes at cushy prices. But I’m certain there are many who find it more disruptive and polluting than Sam Lo’s street work, so I question the lawyer’s assumption unless he had run a nationwide survey to ask Singaporeans what they think of sticker ads. There’s also a suggestion of exemption from penalty if your sticker is about a ‘commercial service’ rather than ‘art’. Which means there’s a chance you may be an illegal landlord, uncertified driving instructor or maybe even a prostitute sticking ads willy-nilly and not get caught. What if you’re spreading the gospel through stickers, like what happened in 1977 with a ‘I found it’ campaign? (‘It’ meaning ‘a life in Jesus Christ’). Would the authorities have hauled in a church leader for ‘mischief’ or use some fancy legal Latin term to convince us that he did no wrong?

It also begs the question of what exactly the law considers a ‘triviality’ which it doesn’t concern itself with. One man’s triviality is another’s outrage. If Sticker Lady had simply pasted ONE offending sticker in town, maybe less than 2 cm in radius, would it be ‘trivial’ enough to adhere to the ‘de minimis’ principle? One HDB owner’s complaint may be trivial, but if EVERY level on EVERY block of HDB flats reports a case of sticker vandalism, surely it becomes a PROBLEM, one that I forsee our authorities and courts will no doubt be STUCK on.

About these ads

Filed under: 1970s, 2013, Advertisements, Environment, HDB, Justice system/Lawsuits, Public works, Religion | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Hawker centre tray return racks too smelly

Posted on September 16, 2012 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Why it’s difficult to return trays at hawker centres’ and ‘Tray clearing didn’t work previously because of poor facilities’, 15 Sept 2012, ST Forum

(Tan Ying San): THERE is a reason why patrons at fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s or Burger King willingly return their trays while those at the hawker centres do not (“Tray-return campaign set for a comeback”; Wednesday).

In fact, patrons avoid seats near the tray-return racks at hawker centres. The reason is simple: Food at fast-food restaurants is dry while the food at hawker centres is a mish-mash of soup, fried vegetables, dark sauce and oily fish. Just look at the mess in the plastic basin where the used bowls and dishes are placed. Not only is it an ugly sight but it also smells sometimes.

If operators of hawker centres and foodcourts want patrons to return the trays, a big effort to clean up the collection centre will go some way in encouraging a change in behaviour.

(Tony Lee): PREVIOUS campaigns to encourage self-clearing of trays failed not only because of a lack of graciousness but also proper facilitation (“Tray-return campaign set for a comeback”; Wednesday).

Hawker centres are cramped with an average of 200 tables, with narrow passages in between. Thus it is already quite an effort to weave in and out of the crowds safely without spilling when carrying a tray of food and drinks to reach one’s selected table. Self-clearing of trays will also lead to congestion.

Even if most patrons were to clear the tables by returning their trays of empty plates and bowls to the shelves placed at various corners in the hawker centre, the cleaners will still be needed to sort them out and return them to the different stalls for washing. Patrons must also walk around to find empty tray shelves if those placed near popular food stalls are full.

What Will and Kate missed

While it is generally true that hawker food tends to be messier than fast food, if you take into account spillage or remnants like bones or leftover sauces, you could make the work easier for everyone by not WASTING food and taking less condiments than you need in the first place. You may also stack your bowls, plates and debris in a neat, compact manner instead of spitting bones onto the table. For whatever reason that makes it difficult for someone to return a tray, be it the stink of the collection centre, ‘congestion’, or ‘feeling bad’ for cleaners who need the job, the least you can do as a gracious human being is to leave your table in a state that wouldn’t require the next patron or worker to don rubber gloves and a decontamination suit to render it less hazardous to one’s health. Or at least not leave behind a sumptuous buffet for mynahs, crows and rats which will not only transfer the waste from tray to table to floor and chair, but poop in your unfinished wanton soup as well.

An exception to the above would be the Ikea cafe culture, where the food is equally messy but the collection centre is centrally located and accessible with a couple of cleaners on hand sorting things out. Maybe it’s not so ‘simple’ as just facilities or the kind of food you eat that determines one’s willingness to return a tray, but rather the psychology and habits of diners. I could just eat a piece of goreng pisang and leave the wrapper behind on the table even if there’s a empty, odourless trash can right next to me if I’m the sort of lazy bastard with a ‘maid mentality’. Also, hawker centre patrons are generally office workers in a rush, and if one had to queue for a longer time just to return trays compared to ordering ‘economical mixed rice’, then you may add another excuse to the list: My boss will kill me if I return back to office a minute late.

Even at Macs not everyone cleans up after themselves, and sometimes even the adults, including teachers of ‘brand name’ schools,  fail to set an example. I personally witnessed a mother telling her daughter to ‘leave it, wait you get your hands dirty’ and walked out of Macs without clearing their trays. Whether out of absent-mindedness, fear of contamination or just plain laziness, the greatest contagion here is not the spread of disease and vermin from uncleared trays, but the attitudes of parents and other ‘role models’ infecting our children.

There have been filthy tables as long as there were hawker centres, and amazingly in the eighties our communal sense of self-consciousness was not as developed as it is today (or maybe we just ran out of cleaners), with fingers being pointed at everything else (hawkers and cleaners included) than at ourselves. Popular spots like Newton Circus greeted patrons with a ‘pong of stewing offal and rotting swill’. People also asked the government to deploy ‘efficient ladies’ to clear tables immediately after anyone leaves.  Those who were part of that generation of sanitation expectation, including myself, are now flag bearers for the younger generation today. And if we don’t snap out of this dependence, how else will the kids learn?

So what can we do to drill tray-clearing into Singaporeans without resorting to toilet-training? Gentle reminders in ads and campaigns such as putting ‘Goodness Gracious’ stickers on tables are inadequate and a waste of time and money in my opinion. Fining failure to return trays under the same legislation as one penalises littering is too harsh. Instead of instilling fear, I think you’d need to create a herd mentality and exploit the Singaporean trait of ‘following the crowd’. If I’m at McDonalds and everyone around me suddenly walks off without clearing their trays, I’m less likely to clear mine, because EVERYONE else is not doing it. Likewise, if I’m at a hawker centre and I see Jenga stacks of dirty plates around me, my brain would register it as the ‘norm’ and I wouldn’t want to ‘stand out’ being the lone ranger clearing his tray.

I would suggest to NEA to recruit not tray ‘ambassadors’ or comedians in starched officer uniform to tell people off, but ‘actors’ instead to dish out some serious guerilla-tactic mind games. This is how I imagine it would work: Target families tucking into dinner in a hawker centre, making sure they are kids in the group. Deploy an ‘actor’ family (with kids as well) next to your target and make sure you finish your food before them. Make the kid actor walk off without the tray while the rest have already started carrying theirs. Make the adult actors admonish the kid ‘Boy boy, what are you supposed to do after you finish your food?’. As the kid does so grudgingly, have the adults deal a little life lesson on being compassionate to fellow human beings and give direction to tray collection areas. Make sure all this is seen and heard without sounding like you’re in Jack Neo film. Chances are your target and those around them will follow suit in a chain reaction of tray clearing. Better still, secretly film the entire scene and upload on Youtube. Like the mini fly haven of a landfill that is the hawker centre tray collection centre, it will go VIRAL.

Hello, NEA are you listening, I’m trying to have CONVERSATION here.

Filed under: 2000s, 2012, Bureaucrats, Campaigns/Elections, Environment, Hawkers, Local food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

We are not English

Posted on September 10, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘A note too far’, 10 Sept 2010, Voices, Today online

(Steve Ngo):…Is the Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) asking Singaporeans to be English language vigilantes?

I’m uncomfortable with terms like “activism” which are prone to misinterpretation.

… When I last checked, Singapore’s standard of English was not so controversial yet as to warrant a guerilla war on bad English.

Has the SGEM verified with the relevant authorities whether sticking notes on public signs would not constitute vandalism or a public nuisance? Especially if it involves State properties?

I also wonder, in the event there are language “activists” who go overboard by sticking yellow notes in what may be largely non-English-speaking establishments – such as temples, mosques, Chinatown or Geylang commercial enclaves.

I agree that signs written in bad English are not desirable but we have to be sensitive to those cultural elements in our harmonious country. Singapore has four official languages; we are not English.

Pardon the inevitable pun, but great job, Steve Ngo, for Sticking it to the Man! Not only is this a waste of paper, manpower and a retina-searing eyesore, but totally counter-intuitive to go around hawker centres correcting aunties and uncles’ English, who may take it as an affront and refrain from using the language, if at all. The natural tendency for anyone encountering someone taking a jab at the way they speak is to go ‘Who the hell do you think you are?You looking down on me, is it?’, not ‘Oh, pardon me for mutilating the English language”. In fact, ugly flyers and pamphlets advertising swimming courses or rooms for rental stuck on letterboxes or pasted on staircase railings may be more useful than a government sanctioned sticky note, with its strikethrough and comic sans font and all, that looks more like the work of a rogue prankster than a ‘guerilla marketing tactic’. In this case, selling a defective product, ‘Speaking Good English’, that nobody has been buying for decades. Singlish, on the other hand, has already made its rounds on the global gaming circuit. So the fear of nobody understanding us other than ourselves (as if that isn’t that good enough. Look how far we’ve come without fixing Singlish even though it’s broke) is unfounded.

There’s a fine line between low-budget advertising and litter of course, but post-it notes, by design and like the message they’re conveying, do not stick for long. All it takes is for an accidental brush, a foreign worker cleaner, or just about anyone with a pen who needs to take down someone’s contact number urgently, to cross over into junk mail territory and render this whole gimmicky exercise completely useless. Nice touch on the Geylang ‘commercial enclaves’ euphemism by Mr Ngo.  Try this on a sex worker some time: ‘I am in need for OF sexual services. Are you available and can I know how much DO you charge please?’ and see how quickly the silhouette of her back fades from view. Perhaps this campaign would have the unintended, collateral benefit of sex workers plying their trade elsewhere, you know, where they don’t have TO entertain such nonsense.

Still, at least today we’re spared of the frivolous mockery endemic of politicians in the past who think Singlish should go the way of the woolly mammoth, as seen in this 19 April 1983 ST article ‘Major Fong’s Singlish jokes make a point about English’. 27 years on and I dare say not only is Singlish more alive and kicking than ever, but it’s THE litmus test for any foreigner who wants to integrate and survive here. Queen-spoken English will not get you your bak-chor mee with less vinegar more mushrooms, no matter how many sticky notes you have memorised. By the way, I’m not sure what disconcerts me more, the fact that politicians think ‘fifty cents per entry’ is grammatically wrong, or that they use it as a punchline for a dirty joke, which people of that stature shouldn’t be telling in the first place. Shame on you, really.

Filed under: 1980s, 2010, Bureaucrats, Campaigns/Elections, Environment, Politicians, Singlish/Broken english | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

Twigs and stones break my bones

Posted on July 12, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Review policy on fallen leaves’ 12 July 2010, ST Forum

(Sim See Hwee): …When it comes to cleanliness at private estates, the issue is not about the NEA’s or the contractors’ performance, but rather the NEA’s policy of not treating fallen leaves, twigs and dust as rubbish to be swept up more regularly. One sees cleaners picking up only litter, instead of sweeping fallen leaves and dust.

Fallen leaves may not strictly be regarded as litter, but they do make a place look untidy. And if left for a long time on the pavement, they decompose and become mouldy, and may cause pedestrians to slip and fall.

There’s a policy on fallen leaves? Surely sweeping up road dust is asking too much of our cleaners, and the complainant is applying an OCD neatness compulsion on a phenomenon that is expected of a ‘Garden City’. Instead of urging cleaners to do more than necessary how about coming up with greener suggestions, like turning decaying foliage into viable compost, or spreading them around Bukit Timah Reserve or something, instead of complaining of fallen leaves being untidy. One must think we’re a nation of clumsy oafs who slip on the slightest things. If it’s not breaking our bones stepping on wet leaves, it’s falling off steps or getting impaled by broken twigs, scarily referred to as ‘missiles’ in this letter dated 8 June 1982 ST Forum, ‘Missile Twigs’.

Filed under: 1980s, 2010, Bureaucrats, Environment | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

Rot and roll

Posted on July 1, 2010 by gdy2shoez

From ‘Round bins a hazard in storms’ 30 June 2010, My Paper

(Ong Hong Bee): WHILE travelling through the city in a heavy thunderstorm last Friday morning, I noticed many litter bins and their lids strewn all over the roads.

They obstructed the way and some motorists were forced to change lanes abruptly.

…The bins were toppled by strong winds. As they are cylindrical, they rolled onto the roads.

The National Environment Agency and town councils should replace such bins with square or rectangular ones, which will not roll about when toppled.

Not a totally rubbish suggestion, though looking at the rate of flash floods recently, dustbins would be strewn around whether they are plastic or metallic, round or octagonal. In the 1970′s plastic cans were all the rage, and if not rolling off on their own during heavy storms, it was a time when people actually stole dustbins, as related in this letter dated 9 April 1976 ‘Untitled’. Unless the authorities of the time had some registration or electronic tracking system for dustbins, how having them ‘clearly marked’ deters petty crime eludes me entirely.

Filed under: 1970s, 2010, Environment | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 170 other followers