The issue of how dirty our housing estates are is something that has been brought up time and again - and I don't think anyone was surprised to see this article in Sunday Times today about how cleaners are the ones who give Singapore our title as a clean city. And to think cats are blamed for being dirty.
At the same time, increasing disputes between neighbours, also reported in the Sunday Times, is also something I know many of you will not be surprised by - and often the cats are caught in the middle. Is it because we're just getting too intolerant? Or are we living too close to one another or is a matter of both these factors and more? Possibly it's also due to our belief that the authorities will take care of everything. For example, the woman who complained that her neighbour doesn't bathe and wants to start a petition to get the authorities to do something. I can appreciate it can be unpleasant to have a neighbour who may smell bad, but what can the authorities do? Force the neighbour to have a shower? Some things you just have to grin and bear - or perhaps just stand downwind.
3 comments:
What do the couple who has been complained about, to do? Grin and bear the unpleasantness showered on them ; )
Last week, the town council officer in charge of my neighbourhood caught two sterilised cats but the snr manager realised that there were an "MOU" with caregivers and the cats were released. The caregiver-aunties who know every cat, realized the caught cats were nowhere near the block of complaint. A Malay family on the 2nd storey complaint of some "I can't tell exactly but some black cat!" and the town council officer did some ground work by speaking to other units on the 2nd storey but not saying that he was finding excuse to do what his predecessors have been doing..kill the cats! When caregivers spoke the units, the residents said they would have objected if they knew any cat would be killed. Even the complainant had wanted to intrusion of cats into her flat to stop and didn't mention the "kill" word. Now caregivers knew the culprits were likely free roaming cats (sterilised at the expense of caregivers) from a Malay family just one unit from complaining family that is also Malay. Both said they didn't knew each other and were not keen to speak to each other to resolve the problem. This is how un-kampong-ish we have become!
I suppose the only good thing that DID come out of it is that the people in the neighbourhood now know each other people because of this episode and hopefully the complainant will stop complaining and speak with the caregivers instead.
Cats DO bring people together. For one thing they bring people out of their flats and into the common areas where they are more likely to meet other neighbours!
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