Plus really strong drug laws.
Six executions so far this year. Most recent: October 26, 2018.[1]
[1] https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/425285/prabus-fin...
The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
61–70 of 138 posts
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#62Plus really strong drug laws. Six executions so far this year. Most recent: October 26, 2018.[1] [1] https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/425285/prabus-fin...
They’re not kidding. The visitor entry card everyone receives upon arrival to Singapore says “DEATH TO DRUG TRAFFICKERS” in hard-to-miss block print.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#63I am right now in Singapore for a visit and personally I don't have the feeling of a very clean city. There are some things that drive me crazy as a european. I went to a hawker with some Singaporeans and we got new disposable chopsticks for every dish. Wich means I ended up with three pairs of chopsticks. All plates were disposable. Either of plastic or styrofoam. Like in the article we didn't clean our trays, a cle…
While I agree there is a lot of plastic used for disposable plastic bags, it is not common to get disposable chopsticks in hawker centers, unless you ask for takeout, which often costs 20-50c extra. Usually all plates/cutlery in hawker centers are reusable plastic. While Singapore cannot be compared to Europe in terms of "save-the-environment" attitude, there recently has been improvement (e.g. some supermarkets star…
> While I agree there is a lot of plastic used for disposable plastic bags, it is not common to get disposable chopsticks in hawker centers, unless you ask for takeout, which often costs 20-50c extra. Usually all plates/cutlery in hawker centers are reusable plastic.
Naming one case that might stand out: Lau Pa Sat's stalls almost all use disposable cutlery.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect your sample size was heavily biased to your own social class. Singapore is ruthlessly capitalist, and can be a terrible place to be if you're poor or a foreign worker. One Straits Times (local Pravda) story I recall was about one of those old ladies who cleans up in hawker centres, earning on the order of S$100/month. This is way below a living wage, even in Singapore, and there's no state pension in Singap…
> Many maids are also kept in modern-day slavery, working 365/24/7 In order to get a maid in Singapore you have to pass a test. They are also paid ~500-700/m which is a lot more than they earn in their own countries. For example the minimum monthly income in Cambodia is roughly ~120$. So they earn a lot more in Singapore. Also maids must be given 1 day off per week. Now every single person I know who has a maid treat…
You're confusing what ought to be with what is. Yes, maids are supposed to be given one day off a week on paper, but who enforces that? Maids and other foreign workers are also not supposed to pay huge sums to agents to score jobs in Singapore, but they do, often ending up in debt, with loan sharks threatening their families if they don't complete their terms.
It's not a question of "bad apples", but the system being stacked so heavily in the employers' favor that it effectively tolerates if not outright encourages abuse. The kind of thing that ends up in the courts and newspapers is only the tip of the iceberg: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/courts-see-more-cases...
Note how frequently the employers threaten their victims with repatriation or the police!
Re: homeless cleaner lady, the story in question was ~10 years ago, but my understanding is that it was not a formal job, but some sort of off the books/cash in hand arrangement -- hence the $100 figure, which was indeed absurdly low even at the time. And not everybody can afford even subsidized housing:
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/singapore-ho...
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#65Plus really strong drug laws. Six executions so far this year. Most recent: October 26, 2018.[1] [1] https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/425285/prabus-fin...
If you get off the green line at Bugis and step outside you can count no less than 37 cameras watching everything. I usually wear a banana and stop to record them recording me.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#66What I found really interesting when I there earlier this year was that the ethnic Chinese complained quite a bit about the strict laws, but the ethnic British or Malaysian didn't seem to be bothered by the plethora of laws, the didn't really seem to interfere with their daily life
I think you might have meant Malays [1], not Malaysians [2].
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Many maids are also kept in modern-day slavery, working 365/24/7 In order to get a maid in Singapore you have to pass a test. They are also paid ~500-700/m which is a lot more than they earn in their own countries. For example the minimum monthly income in Cambodia is roughly ~120$. So they earn a lot more in Singapore. Also maids must be given 1 day off per week. Now every single person I know who has a maid treat…
You're confusing what ought to be with what is . Yes, maids are supposed to be given one day off a week on paper, but who enforces that? Maids and other foreign workers are also not supposed to pay huge sums to agents to score jobs in Singapore, but they do, often ending up in debt, with loan sharks threatening their families if they don't complete their terms. It's not a question of "bad apples", but the system bein…
> You're confusing what ought to be with what is. Yes, maids are supposed to be given one day off a week on paper, but who enforces that?
You been to lucky plaza on a Sunday? Chaos. Mustafa? Botanic Guardens? Gardens by the Bay?
These places are littered with maids every weekend. Some maids choose not to go out. 2 friends of mine have maids, and both their maids go out for 1 hour on Sunday to send money back, then come home, because they don't want to waste money.
The vast majority of maids live happily.
This is another case of "the minority ruin it for the majority". A few Muslim extremists have made a lot of the world think majority of Muslim people are bad people, when the majority are really awesome.
So yes it is a question about a few bad apples.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#68> The country has long had an obsession with hygiene and cleanliness. An obsession with shiny appearances. Hygiene and cleanliness? What a joke. So many meat shops don't store meat in a cold and clean place. Plenty of hawkers are far from clean. > There are 56,000 cleaners registered with the National Environment Agency. There are likely thousands of independent contractors who aren’t registered. Mostly they’re low-p…
> Hygiene and cleanliness? What a joke. So many meat shops don't store meat in a cold and clean place.
There are legal statutes regulating this [1], and the enforcement agency (National Environment Agency) responds to all complaints about potential hygiene issues pretty fast.
I've reported some borderline cases where I felt that the places weren't storing cooked food properly, and I've always gotten a response including a statement that officers visited the place.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#69> The country has long had an obsession with hygiene and cleanliness. An obsession with shiny appearances. Hygiene and cleanliness? What a joke. So many meat shops don't store meat in a cold and clean place. Plenty of hawkers are far from clean. > There are 56,000 cleaners registered with the National Environment Agency. There are likely thousands of independent contractors who aren’t registered. Mostly they’re low-p…
Would be curious to know why the negative votes? I'm leaving there, so that's not just an impression from a western guy trying to save human rights. That's how it works there.
Re: The cost of keeping Singapore squeaky clean
#70I am right now in Singapore for a visit and personally I don't have the feeling of a very clean city. There are some things that drive me crazy as a european. I went to a hawker with some Singaporeans and we got new disposable chopsticks for every dish. Wich means I ended up with three pairs of chopsticks. All plates were disposable. Either of plastic or styrofoam. Like in the article we didn't clean our trays, a cle…
Regarding disposable plates and utensils, I actually don't see much of them unless you ask for takeout. I suspect in the area you're in the cost of dish washing is more expensive than the cost of plates and refuse collection. A tax on disposables would be great. Singapore is actually getting better on reducing disposables, though slower than I would like. Cashiers don't double bag items anymore, and try to pack as mu…
> Regarding disposable plates and utensils, I actually don't see much of them unless you ask for takeout. I suspect in the area you're in the cost of dish washing is more expensive than the cost of plates and refuse collection. A tax on disposables would be great.
Most hawker stalls charge an extra 20 cents or so for takeout, which helps them recover the cost of the container. I think that's a good compromise.