In the US, folks return their plates without being coaxed all the time, and people say hi and bye and are generally helpful. What's the big deal?

In Singapore, a blogger generates higher hit counts if he/she argues against the government. It does not matter how irrelevant the counter-points given are, so as long as they are against the government.

Trackback from If you don't listen....:

which finger was it???...

Regarding returning of trays/plates, not only US, people in many other developed countries do the same, as a matter of habit. What is it they say about Singapore? 1st world infrastructure, 3rd world society.

Irritating retard.

How does our country breed shallow thinkers like these, I do not know.

as much as I am against PAP...

can bloggers' articles be judged better before its put up?
this article is full of silly pts
stupid idiot.

Oh My God. Are the editors putting this up for our entertainment? Or to train our eye-ball rolling techniques.

It's so full of stupidity that I've no idea where to start.

Obviously this man is too myopic and selfish to see the bigger picture. Our country doesn't have enough space for everyone to have cars. If that happens, traffic conditions could be as bad as cities like New York, where walking is faster than taking a cab during peak hours.

Then ask the rich folks not to buy so many cars and take the MRT instead lor.

Trackback from Indeed, FREEDOM allows us to do that. :

It’s truly shameful that PM needs to give a reminder to remove the food tray after your meal. (I can’t find other countries where their government leader must issue such a similar statement.) ...

The blogger may have written some idiotic things but please lor, why dont those who advocate returning plates do so when they eat in a restaurant?
There are actually honest hawkers out there who have the decency not only to clear your used plates immediately but also actually send your food to your table. The trend of demanding customers to queue for half an hour for food, giving zero-service and selling crap food was started only about 10 years ago by large kopitiam organisations out to milk undiscerning consumers. It is only suckers who would think of helping them clear their tables.

@Anon 11.08: Why don't you think of it this way. You'd be helping others who want to sit at your table by clearing it for them. How many times have you been irritated cos a group of people just stand up and leave their dirty trays and crockery and no one to clear?

If you think that there will be cleaning ladies who are paid to clear it for you, please. Do you know how old they are? And why are our elderly working anyway!? They have worked all their lives and they should be resting and enjoying the fruits of their labour! Do you think that your elderly grandmother should clear your tables for you, if you give her monthly allowance?

Have you been to food courts that are so crowded that the cleaning ladies/uncles have absolutely no time to attend to every single table in time? And they don't just have to clear your table you know. They have to sort out the crockery, wipe the trays, take it to the washing area, bring out the clean ones and distribute them to different stalls. It's easy if all stalls use the same central set of utensils. But what if they don't? It's a lot more work for these aunties.

I'm appalled that anyone can think that only hawkers who send food to your table is honest. Just because they allow you to sit on your ass while they slog THEIR ass off to make you happy? Just for a measly $3/4 bucks?

You're making a ridiculous comparison to restaurants here. Restaurant patrons usually sit longer, giving servers more time to clear the dishes. You pay a whole hell lot more because of that service. Why do you think they charge you 10% for service? That said, I bet you don't even say thank you to them!

If you think it's only decent that people serve you at your table and clear dishes for you, then please. Eat only at restaurants. Cheap hawker/food court fares are not classy enough for you apparently.

To add, I have never been irritated with the people who leave behind dirty plates at the table which I was about to sit. My irritation was always directed at the irresponsible hawkers who do not take any action to rectify the problem.
Also, do u know a Mcdonalds' franichise fee (i.e. free goodwill money) is about SGD1 million? Despite such ridiculous fees, McDonalds is doing a roaring biz. By the time they are done with China, there will probably be hundreds of thousands of Macs all over the world. U mean to say they are so successful and make so much money but they have no obligation/decency to engage some more pple to clear tables ASAP? U would rather they spend money on some stupid toys to give away? Macs is like 1 trillion times richer than the average 5-star restaurant and they cant provide the same level of cleaning service as a 5-star restaurant? Come on, already! Give us consumers a BIG BREAK.

One small issue like clearing your own plates can generate so many comments.

I salute you guys who went 'all the way' for the kopitiam aunties and uncles. =)

It has never occurred to me that I have to clear my own plates bcos I have never been required to so so when I ate at hawkers in the 70s, 80s and early 90s when hawkers took it upon themselves to do it. I dont see why I should do it now just so that the kopitiam owner can boost his profits (by saving on employing more cleaners) and then lobby the govt to increase ERP so that only rich pple like himself get to enjoy our good roads.

Clearing our own plates, in a way, is showing empathy towards the poor cleaners.

We Singaporeans are so used to being cleaned up after we've left our mess, leaving the dirty jobs to others - so much so that it becomes a RIGHT and not a privilege to have someone clean up after us.

Don't you remember clearing your own plates in Primary, Secondary schools and this is also practiced in the Tertiary Institutions in Singapore, so what's so difficult about it?

That said, I think I should clear my plates more often as well :P

If all of us clear our plates, u can be sure as hell that the foodcourt operators will boost their profits by retrenching your "poor cleaners". Cleaning tables is not a dirty job. It is a proper and honest job. Foodcourt operators who do nothing much and make lots of money by cutting down on basic cleaning service are the ones who stink .