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Can you bear with me and let me rant a bit?

I am getting really fed up with my neighbours.  They are just plain sickos who don’t spare a thought for others.  The worst has got to be the one above our unit, although the ones beside us are starting to drive us nuts too.

We have been really tolerant as we can’t do much about what is happening, but it really gets on our nerves sometimes!  I believe if you are Singaporean and you stay in a HDB, you will understand what I am talking about below.

These are very typical complaints of HDB flat dwellers as you will see.  They are the result of UGLY human behaviour.  Why hasn’t our social graces improved at all for so many years?  ARGGHHH…

From the idiotic unit right above,

• They hang their dripping laundry out everyday.  There is no way I could hang anything out in the sun to dry as I do not wish to subject our clothes to their dirty dripping water.  Don’t they have a washing machine to at least spin dry?  If they can afford to have two air conditioner compressor units, I’m sure they can afford a washing machine.  These people are just plain lazy and inconsiderate!

(See an example of how laundry is hung at HDB flats in Singapore and you will know what I mean!)

• Before we moved in, we noticed our air-con ledge was already full of cigarette butts, courtesy of them.  But we thought maybe things will improve when we eventually move in as that smoker above may think twice about throwing his cigarette butt when the unit is occupied.  Boy, we are wrong!  The fellow is still throwing his cigarette butts like nobody’s business.  I wonder if I should set up a spy cam someday and report him!

• In fact, the whole family are chronic litter bugs.  They throw all sorts of rubbish on our air-con ledge.  There are straws, tissue paper, cigarette boxes, plastic bags and even a cushion!  I am really worried of the fire hazard that these items will cause if a cigarette butt lands on them.  And once, in the middle of the night, I heard a “plonk” but I was too sleepy to care.  The next morning, when I was trying to close my window, it just wouldn’t budge.  That’s when I found a durian seed lodged on my window sill!!  Really taboleh-tahan (means “cannot take it” in Malay)!  How I wish NEA would come and fine them for consistently littering and make the whole family do corrective order!

As for the units beside us, there are two families with small children.  Although we understand how uncontrollable kids will be when they cry or throw tantrums, but as parents, they should just keep their doors closed and let them bawl all they want in their own house.  When they leave their doors open, and the kids start shouting and screaming (there is even a little boy who can scream at such a high pitch that I think my ear-drums are going to break everytime), it is plain disturbance to the neighbours around!

Can you imagine how these noises will interrupt someone trying to study for exams?  Or how these sudden outbursts will frighten and wake up a sleeping baby in the neighbouring unit?  We do understand that in community living like HDB flats, we are required to have a level of tolerance towards each other.  But we also hope every neighbour makes an effort to contain and minimize the disturbance within the boundaries of their own home.  And of course, don’t throw your rubbish in someone’s backyard.  It is the same as living in a bungalow and throwing rubbish in your neighbour’s garden.

It is UGLY.

It is INCONSIDERATE.

It reflects your character BADLY.

It shows how TERRIBLE your upbringing is.

Perhaps in local sense, changing the mindsets of these UGLY neighbours will only work if they are subjected to fines.  Like what I see on those touristy T-shirts that say “Singapore is a FINE country”, it is ironic to see that certain groups of people are only willing to change and spare a thought for others when they have to pay for the consequences with monetary loss.  Or loss of their “face” as in corrective work order!  These may be the only ways that are effective for these people for the time being.

As for us, are we to put up with all these nonsense?  We have equal rights to stay in this place just like them.  I don’t believe in moving away just because of these people as that will be succumbing to their bullies.  But I secretly hope they will move away before me and cause me less frustration.  Hahaha.

Are you a fellow Singaporean facing these same type of idiosyncrasies?  If you have succeeded in warding these inconsiderate people off other than “putting up with them”, please let me know what I can do.

My right brain tells me to expose the idiotic neighbour above, but my left brain tells me to close one eye and live with it as I may put my family in danger if I take any serious actions towards them.  Such uncouth people don’t talk sense sometimes, and they can be so irrational they might come and reason with us.  We never know what they might try to do.  SIGH……

Thanks for hearing me rant.  I do feel a bit better now.  What do you think I should do, other than put up with them?  I can live with the noise, I can live with drying my laundry indoors, but I can’t bear the thought of a potential fire hazard from all the littering.  This really sux huh?