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Tag: cleaners

  • Syakir Hashim: Singaporean Elders Deserve Rest, Not More Work

    Syakir Hashim: Singaporean Elders Deserve Rest, Not More Work

    As I walk into Changi Airport today at about 7 a.m, I saw many workers of old age either cleaning or moving the trolleys around.

    I was reminded of an incident back when I was in year one in NUS. I went for lunch with my project groupmates in Utown. Three of them to be exact. All of them are foreign students.

    We all went to get our meals separately. I was the first to be back at the table followed by two others. We asked each other where the 4th person went. We waited for a few minutes and she was still nowhere in sight.

    Soon I walked around and I saw her helping an old lady clearing up tables. She was trying to help the lady pick up cups and rubbish from some of the tables, making the old cleaner lady discomforted.

    I asked my friend what she was doing and she said that she felt bad seeing the old lady working so hard. Where she came from, no elderly has to work that hard.

    That moment hit me hard. The fact that elderly workers are so common in foodcourts, malls and our airport, we sometimes forget to ask if its right to keep them working till that ripe old age.

    Can’t we as a developed country think of ways to give our elderly the peace of mind and rest they deserve after serving the country and its economy over four or five decades? I’m sure if our leaders put their mind to it, innovative policies can be formulated to help our elderly, here in singapore.

    Can you imagine your parents at the age of 70 having to work 8 hours a day clearing and cleaning at a foodcourt?

    Just food for thought.

     

    Source: Syakir Hashim

  • Residents To Clean Own Neighbourhood On Cleaners’ Day Off

    Residents To Clean Own Neighbourhood On Cleaners’ Day Off

    Cleaners with various town councils this year will be given a day off, with residents instead mobilised to clean up their own neighbourhoods, as part of fresh efforts to tackle the littering scourge.

    The standard of cleanliness in Singapore has fallen, with surveys showing that from 2006 to 2010, the number of litter items collected almost doubling, said Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan in Parliament today (March 11).

    He joined Members of Parliament who spoke at his Ministry’s Committee of Supply debate in calling for greater civic consciousness, as he signalled his resolve to reduce the littering menace.

    Hougang MP Png Eng Huat called for public cleanliness posters, jingles and banners of decades past to be “recycled” this Jubilee year to drive home the message to the community to keep their surroundings clean.

    Dr Balakrishnan said campaigns have never stopped. “I think what has changed is behaviour and perhaps our propensity to enforce in the past. But now that we have changed onto a higher enforcement posture, and with more volunteers and with everyone being prepared to exert peer pressure, I’m determined to make a difference on the ground as far as littering is concerned,” he said.

    Several new ways to address the littering problem here include equipping enforcement officers with body-worn cameras to document abusive behaviour of litterbugs, providing more training to volunteers, and encouraging organisers to involve participants in cleaning up after major events.

     

    Source: www.todayonline.com