Love Thy Neighbour

Singaporeans are house-proud; they keep their houses clean and pretty. That comes naturally.

What is less natural to some is to keep the common spaces outside our homes clean and pretty too, and be proud of these common spaces.  Cluttering the common spaces and obstructing the common spaces are unfriendly acts.  They can also be dangerous.

The recent fires in HDB towns are sharp reminders why we should treat common spaces with respect.

We had five decades building HDB homes.  Now, we want to build community among the residents.  The task of building community is harder but much more important.

That is why the HDB is launching its inaugural Community Week, from May 21.  It has a cute video to carry its message across.

Building community is not a new mission, but we are giving it greater emphasis.  As I said so before, we should now try to recreate the old kampong in our HDB towns.

During this Community Week, HDB will be targeting the youth, aiming to get young people more involved in their local communities. Through the various activities, young Singaporeans will learn about being considerate neighbours, doing good deeds for strangers, and even becoming ambassadors for eco-living in their housing estates.

In the old kampong days, many families lived close to one another. Neighbours shared their everyday delights, and looked out for one another’s children. Every child was the community’s child.

With modernisation, we lost a bit of this kampong spirit. Besides the recent fires in cluttered corridors, we have also heard of more residents complaining about noisy neighbours.

The HDB’s initiatives can be summarised as a campaign to simply “love thy neighbour”, as we all used to do back in the day.

These are great initiatives. Let’s regain this old way of life.  Let’s all be considerate neighbours. This can be as simple as giving the uncle who walks by your corridor a simple smile, or helping the auntie who struggles back home with her groceries.

Love thy neighbour and be awed by the power of love as it radiates through the neighbourhood!

 

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Shoe-box Factories?

Shoe-box apartments serve a purpose as many singles do find them adequate for their housing needs.  There is hence a market for such a demand.  I have visited some of these buyers and they seem comfortable with their units.

But shoe-box factories? As small as 50-80 sqm (smaller than a typical 7-Eleven shop)? Can a factory truly operate in such a small space?

Last month, ST published an article about some of these shoe-box tenants in industrial parks.  Many are legitimate non-industrial tenants, providing relevant supportive services to the genuine industrial tenants for which the industrial park is built.  For example, some are staff canteens and in-house clinics serving the factory workers.

However, there are some who appear to be unauthorized non-industrial tenants.  They appear to be abusing the lower rentals at industrial land/parks for normal commercial/office activities which should rightly be in commercial land/sites.  This is wrong.

URA zones industrial land to support industrial activities.  The zoning helps to keep the industrial land cheaper than say commercial/office land, and thereby keeps our industries competitive.

Authorised industrial activities

What are legitimate industrial activities?  They include manufacturing, warehousing and production. Certain types of e-businesses such as IT infrastructure and software development are also allowed.

Unauthorised use of industrial land

Offices and shops are not considered industrial use and are not allowed within industrial developments.  However, some non-industrial activities such as child-care centres, staff canteens and showrooms are allowed within industrial developments, provided (a) they support the main industrial activities, and (b) together with lift lobbies and other circulation areas, do not occupy more than 40% of the industrial development.

Bona fide industrial activities will need space.  Shoe-box factory units cannot accommodate genuine industrial activities.  JTC has estimated that a minimum unit size of 150 sqm is necessary for genuine industrial activities.  It has made this clear in its industrial land sale tenders.  URA has also used a similar norm when evaluating development proposals in industrial parks.

Meanwhile, developers and property agents are required to make it clear to prospective buyers upfront that industrial units can only be used for industrial activities.  They must not mislead buyers into misusing industrial land/parks for non-industrial activities.

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Anglers Unite

Last month, one Mr Abdul Rashid who lives in Woodlands emailed a request to my fellow GRC MP, Mr Vikram Nair, with a copy to me.  He is a regular angler and user of the Woodlands Waterfront Jetty.

I opened the Waterfront two years ago together with my fellow GRC MPs.  It is a beautiful park in my constituency but has also become popular with Singaporeans in general.  I visited it several times.  Each time, I found it necessary to wait a while for a vacant car park lot.  This is a good sign that the place is well used.

Many young people told me that “it is a happening place” among the young.  I regularly saw them in groups, enjoying themselves, with radios and picnic bags.

It is also popular with families, with kids chasing each other, complete with pets and kites.

And of course I will always find anglers trying their luck.  They are a patient lot.  Most will get some catch, but tiny fishes.

Mr Abdul Rashid provided a link: http://woodland-jetty.blogspot.com/ to show in his own words, that “Woodlands Waterfront Jetty has become a popular fishing hotspot”.  With his permission, I am sharing some of his photos showing the impressive catch.  I am surprised by the catch.  More importantly, he and his group of regular anglers have forged strong friendships through their hobby.

That is why we invest in parks.  They add to our quality of life, besides promoting healthy living and community bonding.  We will continue to do more.  The next big thing, besides the Rail Corridor, is a seamless 150km-long Round Island Route to link up our many major natural, cultural and historical attractions.

Imagine a weekend of cycling along this new route with your buddies and family!

Building a park is the easy part.  How do we keep it clean, for all to enjoy, at all times?  That is the difficult part.  The solution cannot be foreign cleaners.

The parks in Australia, Japan and Korea are wonderfully clean.  They do not have foreign cleaners to pick up the litter.  The users do not litter in the first place.  Park users take their rubbish with them as they leave.  Pets are leashed and the owners pick up the poo and clean up the pee as a habit.

Many Singaporeans are picking up such a good habit.  But I think we are still not yet at the level of the Aussies, or Koreans or Japanese.

For example, at our waterfront jetty, some anglers prepare live baits on the floor and then forget to clean up, leaving behind an unpleasant stench and a rotten mess which attracts flies.  Reluctantly, the park has to discourage live bait at the jetty.  This is not a good solution as it affects the fishing experience of anglers.

The best solution is for the community of anglers to take ownership of the jetty’s cleanliness, and prepare live bait the proper way, on chopping boards and dispose of any remnants thereafter.  This way, every one, anglers or non anglers can enjoy the waterfront at all times.

I forgot to say that Mr Abdul Rashid emailed Mr Vikram Nair to lobby against the ban on live bait.  NParks is now working with him and his regular anglers to self-police, and get all to adopt the correct way of preparing live bait. This will then make the ban unnecessary and irrelevant.

If you have any ideas on how you can help keep our parks world class, matching the standard of behaviour of park users in Australia or Japan, NParks Facebook will be thrilled to hear from you!

Eat Less, Move More

Last week, a friend forwarded an email from a 60-year Singaporean on the use of HDB stairs for exercise:

“I discovered an obvious exercise in Singapore — walking up flights of staircases!

80 per cent of Singaporeans can do it every day, since they live in HDB.

This morning, I walked up all 11 floors of my block. Taking two steps at a time, it took me 2.30 mins to reach the top floor. Then I walked round the common corridor on the 10th floor to cool down. Then I walked down to the ground floor. One cycle takes about six minutes. Do it 4-5 times, and you get a good workout.

We should promote this. No need to join gyms. Save money.”

Yes, indeed.

After my heart bypass and while in SGH, my physiotherapist started me on some light exercise using the SGH stairs, beginning with one level, and gradually progressing to three, before discharging me home.

Last year, I remember watching a Youtube clip on how the Swedes encourage their people to use the stairs:

And apparently, it worked.

The friend suggested that we could try something similar – and also tune to different beats for different effects – one day gamelan, another day Thai music, and another, hip-hop?

That should be fun – nudging people to exercise and in a fun way.

Let’s eat less and move more, and include the HDB stairs as one way to promote healthy exercise.  Anyone?

But of course, know your limits and don’t over-exert yourself.

If you have other fun ideas to exercise, do share them on MND Facebook.