Daily Thots: Love your neighbour, even if he lives on Everitt Road

Anyone living in Singapore will be familiar with the term "neighbour". Most of us live within the vicinity of one, and are one ourselves from birth. Although being a neighbour is compulsory while National Service is not (at least for females & non-citizen males), it's a subject that's often under-rated and taken for granted. But we at Cyberfellowship, as usual, decide to probe beneath the surface & look at the state of neighbour relations. Are neighbours doing neighbourly things to each other? Are they loving?

Our roving Cyberfellowship reporter Tom was assigned to cover this special topic. Here's his report after almost 40 years of painstaking research, or rather, plain observation as he was growing up anyway.

*** Special Report on Neighbour Relations ***

Neighbours in Singapore are a loving and friendly lot. I think it's because of our relentless "Courtesy" campaign eons ago. Remember the "Courtesy jingle", baby boomers?

Courtesy is for free

Courtesy is for you and me

It makes for gracious living and harmony

Giving it a friendly smile

Helping out when we can

Courtesy could be our way of life

It's rude to be abusive just to prove we are right

Instead we could be nice and helpful if we try

Just how many ways are there to love thy neighbour?

In the 70s & 80s

• Need some ginger or eggs? Take from the auntie next door.
• Bicycle or motorcycle broken? Ask the uncle upstairs for help.
• Need someone to send your kids to school? Just ask the auntie at the far corner.
• Mom not home? Wait in the house of the auntie next door till she's back.
• Problems with your maths homework? Ask the ge-ge or jie-jie upstairs.

In the new millenium (to be precise, somewhere in Everitt Road in the eastern part of Singapore)

• They wash each other's car.
• They greet each other with gestures.
• They brighten each other's house at night with spotlight.
• They provide karaoke music for each other.
• They install security cameras to keep watch over each other's house.

As you can see, Singapore is a loving, gracious society, delightful to live in. Our neighbour relations is number one, just like our global ranking for other things.

Aside to Editor: Please publish my report. Thanks.

Editor's notes:

Tom, the New Millenium part of your report is flawed.

• splashing dirty soap suds on each other's car is NOT washing car.
• those gestures were not greetings, and in fact, too rude to describe.
• the spotlights were not installed because the neighbour was too poor to afford any light; they were specially trained on the bedrooms so that the neighbour could not sleep.
• the karaoke music was not some kind of a soft, piped-in music, but blasted at each other at night, calculated to create a maximum level of irritation.
• And the cameras? Yes, they are for keeping watch, but not for the safety of the neighbour.

Dear readers,

Neighbour relations has never been worse, especially for those living in Everitt Road. As society becomes more affluent and less spacious, irritation seems to be the order of the day. But if you want to beget good neighbours, here's a piece of sound advice - start by being a good one yourself, then 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:39 )

God bless,

Thomas

Category: cf_tht, sounding board