SMU students are generally full of ideas and none of practicality. Being a SMU graduate, I have witnessed my school mates come up with the most impractical ideas in attempt to differentiate themselves. As I have graduated from SMU, I am not sure about the motivation behind Tissue Parody. But I do suspect its a project from the course “Leadership and Team Building” in which students are expected to plan an execute a Community Service Project to help out those in need. Having said that, yes I am one of those who did dumb things to try and score an A.

However, very often, your grade is dependent on the level of media coverage of your project. In the case of Tissue Parody, I would guess most of them have scored an A.

What I have said above is merely my speculation and I will welcome anyone to correct my views. I do feel that there is a problem with SMU’s curriculum; it encourage students to lead with vision without practicality and consequences. Be Different. (sort of like GRC: invest your residents’ money in risky investments)

KK, as a current SMU student, I totally agree.

There’s something wrong with the curriculum. The university seems to be having a identity crisis now. Previously, when it first started out, the emphasize is on vibrancy of student activities and not on examinations. Now, the emphasize has gone to the other spectrum.

Everything else doesn’t matter, just ace your exams and you’ll do well. I begin to wonder if SMU will still keep employers attracted to our students, if they are heading the way of academic excellence over everything else.

Hi DC.

Nice to hear from you. Good luck in your exams.

Cheers.

Just wondering, takeout is a good option for a busy lunch period too. Grab some food, drinks, and have a good meal at the office with friends/colleagues.

Place more benches around the CBD, green spaces et al. That way, the lunch crowd can be distributed more evenly too.

I did not about such a phenomenon in Singapore until 2 months ago when I was in Novena Square’s food court. My 2 friends went off to get their food and I found a tissue packet on the table. I thought it was left behind by the previous patron and just took the seat. There came a fuming lady insisting that the tissue was there to “chope” and when I gave her a bewildered look, and asked her how was I supposed to know, she said that it was a common practice. Only in Singapore does this happen. And become an acceptable practice even. Singapore is not the only country with a lunch time crowd but the citizens of other countries do not face this sort of lowly behaviour. If I see a table with a tissue paper, I will certainly ignore it.

The usual, more civilised way of doing it is definitely getting a friend to be seated while others are buying food, if you don’t want to wait, then pack your food. Making excuses for this sort of behaviour only propagates more of such behaviour. Everything becomes acceptable if one is to justify actions, why even the pushing and the shoving at the entrance of mrt lines is justifiable, price hikes are justifable, etc etc. Rude boorish Singaporean style has to be banished. Maybe that is why Singaporeans need so many campaigns, because left to their own devices, they would just run amok.

I applaud the students for voicing our their distaste, project or no project.

clarence, well said! :)

to the smu students who posted, is the situation that ‘bad’? so all those jumping and somersaulting ads just a facade?

Unconventionallyurs,

You’re right. I wonder why so many Singaporeans are unable to get used to the concept of takeout.

CelluloidReality, takeout would be convenient but there would be some environmental impact (plastic containers, etc).

Jun,

Well, that’s why we have recycling programs. It’s all about education. If you have a soup dish, use your own reusable containers. Everything else can be stored in biodegradable paper boxes/brown.

I believe to solve this issue, it will take a whole across-the-board solution that tries to evolve our lunch culture in the CBD. Or unless people start to put one member of their lunch kakis at the table and buy food for him/her.

It’s not that hard, it’s whether most people can be arsed to be aware of what they are doing. We’ve got a long way to go..

lah, and meh are so often derided as Singlish words that need to be banned from the face of the earth.

Today, <i.meh, has been included in the English Dictionary because one American Cartoon show used the word, and presto! it became accepted English.

Singaporeans must learn to recognise typical Singaporean traits and not to brand them social misfits because they do not see others doing the same.

We are Uniguely Singaporeans, remember?

Gemami,

Every society has traits that are either seen as positive or negative. The tissue-choping system is not a positive one, nor does it contribute much to our own street culture other than making other fellow diners irritated.

i did think of that, so before encouraging takeaways, need to increase awareness of environmentally friendly packaging or bring your own box first… but seriously, if the shenton way crowd is that busy, how many will bother?

gemami,

linguistics student here. i believe the meh in the dictionary/used in american cartoons is not the same meh as the singlish one. the mehs have different pragmatic uses. one main difference: the american meh can be used alone. the singlish one must be tagged to the end of the clause.

however, the lah is the oxford english dictionary is the singlish lah (as opposed to the manglish lah, lol).

Jun,

Takes time.. I guess. But from my circle, a lot of us are more keen on takeouts than having to hunt for a place or sit in a crowded food court.

unconventionallyurs, I certainly understand your bewilderment when you are berated by the fuming lady. But I can understand that fuming lady’s bewilderment when you sat at her seat that is chopped.

I do not think any of you were at fault for the incident. Having said that, I will still disagree with Tissue Parody’s approach and understanding of the issue.

However, I will give the team an A for attracting so much attention to their project and the school. That is the whole idea of LTB!

jun,

Yup, you’re right. thanks.

Indeed, I do find the “choping” of seats by using tissue paper was borne out of necessity of efficiency.

The biggest problem is this:

Even if we were to assume that everyone lunches in groups and the person being left behind doesn’t mind being asked umpteenth time whether the seat is taken, can you imagine the time wasted by the person who was left behind?

And exacerbate matters, if we wanted to insist on being socially gracious, it would be somewhat obligatory for the rest who had already gotten their food, to wait for the person who was left behind to purchase his/her meal, so that everyone would be able to partake their individual meals at the same time.

Socially gracious? Yes.
An utter waste of time?
Personally, that’s a resounding yes as well.

agree with kelvin.

Kelvin,

Pardon me, but I find it amusing that telling people that a table is occupied is such a mentally draining activity.

As for time wasting, is it so hard to help the gracious table-warmer buy his/her food?

Well, im one of the members of Tissue Parody and believe it or not, we’re not doing this for the grades.

True, it started out as an attempt to differentiate ourselves from everyone else but in the course of actually garnering support for our projects implementation, we realised that its more than just academia.

The hawker association over at Chinatown Complex was extremely supportive of our campaign, and their gripe was that their own customers had conflicts over something as mundane, trivial and absurd as a packet of tissue paper.

Sure, we can be Uniquely Singaporean. Lets justify our actions with efficiency! People who used to spit in the streets a century ago probably patted themselves on the back and lauded their highly efficient way of getting rid of phlegm. (different context, but the point is there) Tissue Paper to reserve seats today, and pockets of air to reserve seats tomorrow.

AND YET we can continue to complain and gripe about everything else (not moving into the back of the bus etc) without realising that its all linked. Its all about us not bothering to be polite and justifying everything with efficiency. This tissue paper nonsense is the manifestation of how shallow our social interactions already are, and how bad its going to get.

Are Singaporeans saying that leaving someone behind to reserve seats is impolite? Cos if thats the case then we really are Uniquely Singaporean, though thats not the unique we want to see.

I’ve worked at, and had lunch in the CBD area for almost a year (post NS), and i’ve seen people leave someone behind and offer their own tables to strangers if they need it.

Ok, sorry I’m beginning to ramble though, ive got a term paper to submit tomorrow :) I’m sure KK & DC know that i cant afford to sleep tonight.. haha

Thanks for all your views, really appreciate it, we’ll continue our ‘campaign’ in december. Probably reserve seats using christmas trees or something.

Oh, and the need to repitively tell people that the seat is taken? Maybe we can just smile, and shake our heads to indicate whether or not the seat’s taken. A bit idealistic i know, but i hope to remain idealistic till i’m an old man haha

Anyway, a smile really is contagious haha

Repetitively* typo there

Don’t think we should generalize smu students here, but anyone is prone to giving impractical ideas. Prominent figures giving impractical ideas just make it more obvious than normal.
I think a sign which reminds people to vacate seats would help, similar to signs at university canteens reminding people to clear their tables.

i am never a chopper; maybe bcoz i never bring tissues with me.

but what is wrong to be a chopper?

You creative SMU students may come out with a much better alternative to design a big big queue number machine at the entrance of each hawker center, to dispatch ppl a queue number for tables when they pass the door. Creative, right? Also faire enough, right? So what is the difference between the chope machanism and this queue machine way?

I do not see what is wrong with reserving seats with tissue paper; indeed it is a practical and efficient way to allocate seats at peak hours. The problems with the alternative method have already been pointed out – leaving someone behind only wastes time and worsens the problem of lack of seats, and not everyone dines in groups.

Kumar, your analysis is extremely shallow. The examples you’ve raised like spitting in public and not moving into the back of buses are clearly not the same as reserving seats with packs of tissue. In the former, it is an issue of hygiene. In the latter, efficiency considerations equally arise – if people do not move into the back, then buses will not be carrying at their maximum capacity and our transportation system will not be as efficient as it can be.

Furthermore, the premise of the campaign – that reserving seats with tissue packs is ungracious – is dubious to begin with. I for one fail to see any ungraciousness in it. Clearly your beef is not with reserving seats per se – you encourage groups of diners to leave someone behind to reserve the table. Therefore the alleged ungraciousness apparently stems from the fact that an object is used to reserve the seat instead of a person.

But what exactly is wrong with this? We use inanimate tools to accomplish our objectives all the time. We communicate with even our close friends through telephones and online messaging programmes. So what is wrong with using a tissue packet to communicate to strangers that the seat is taken?

But a more fundamental question is this: What exactly is “graciousness”, and why is it valued? If you thought a bit about it, you’d realise that graciousness really means consideration for other people in society. It means acting in a way that takes into account other people’s interests. Viewed in this context, using a person to reserve the table instead of a tissue pack adds nothing to the content of graciousness: (1) others are still barred from sitting there, (2) the guy who has to reserve the table is forced to wait
AND (3) the group takes longer to vacate the table as they have to wait for the guy who got his meal later. Therefore, it is arguable that using tissue packs to reserve seats is far more considerate and gracious to all the parties involved than leaving someone behind.

In conclusion, your group’s initiative is admirable, but it’s underlying premise is suspect and poorly thought through. Instead of rhetoric like repeated sarcastic invocations of the “Uniquely Singapore” slogan, please offer actual logic to support your group’s stand. Otherwise your campaign is all style but no substance.

Jamie,

Thank you for your extremely thoughtful and spot-on comment. I think it is one of the best I’ve read. Would you consider writing for TOC? Please do drop us an email at theonlinecitizen@gmail.com.

Zheng Xi

SMU student are blah blah, NUS blah, NTU blah… being all stereotypical really prove you analyze well =)

There are obviously negative issue created from using tissue paper to chop seats, hence why the campaign was started anyway. And if you start a online poll, you will probably get a portion of people agreeing and disagreeing with the argument.

The idea may be feasible or not feasible but at least someone bothered to start addressing the issue. Ever seen fights and quarrels over who has priority over the seats? If everyone in ‘CBD’ believes chopping seats with a tissue paper is a ‘gracious’ thing to do, then they wont be offended or bothered with the campaign in the first place.

Jamie: I think you’ve outdone my piece with your reply. : )

Kye and Kumar: Goodness, have you both even read my original article?

Hi Kye,

Campaigns cost money and public attention. Which is why identifying the wrong root of the problem and then starting a public campaign to misguidedly “solve” it goes only to perpetuate it.

Don Quixote tilting at windmills himself is harmless, but to harness the time and energies of a movement that can really be better spent identifying deeper issues (as Jamie has done) and proposing real solutions (as Clarence has done) is really quite a waste.

Also, to say a problem exists because someone is trying to solve it is circular reasoning which still doesn’t answer the question: have the best solutions been identified?

Zheng Xi

I’d like to add on: “Why not go for take-out meals?”

Other than the obvious environmental impact of take-out containers, sometimes people just want to, you know, leave the office environment for a while? And I believe quite a few would like to have lunch with friends who work in other offices in the vicinity.

I usually eat alone. Usually it is kind of hard to be a single eater in the concrete jungle. Despite that, I never “reserve” any seat using tissue paper or any other objects. However, I also have no problem with people who do so.

One solution I can propose is to add “counter style” seats. They take up less space, and are single-eater friendly.

jamie, well written! i agree that they need to convince us why using tissue to chope seats is ungracious first.

>We use inanimate tools to accomplish our objectives all the time. We communicate with even our close friends through telephones and online messaging programmes.

however, i don’t consider MSN or SMS to be as inanimate as a packet of tissue paper. i think perhaps a more accurate analogy would be people using various items to chope places in polyclinic queues or even carpark lots outside landed homes, perhaps?

I think this “chope” mentality is part of the Singapore kiasuism. While it may seem to be true to be efficient for the people who chope, consider the time of many other people. I think it is waste of time and scarce resources. Just this afternoon, I was at a food court and I saw many choped empty tables but I had some dificulty in finding a place to sit. When I finished my food I noticed that the people who choped the tables are still not back yet. So much for efficiency indeed.

Quoted : 5) unconventionallyurs on November 18th, 2008 1.48 pm

This is more of a local culture. why we dun do takeways? we do? but do we have enough places to sit and eat? some offices dun really allow food in it as the smell will be quite bad that affects other.

i would say, before saying so much, maybe you would like to try to understand more about the local culture.

for the SMU students, if the project is to get media coverage, you have done great and such get “A”.

If you are sincere in eradicating this issue or tissue, you need to look again at your actions. have you done enough research and surveys with the working class and why we resort to this action? this act is derive after ways of testing and general acceptance. you should see how people put umbrellas or other things and finally arrive that the tissue is the best and convenient way to reserve seats.

However, maybe you should look at why people hog seats after meals. if this is solved, the flow of seats for people will be faster. less tissue papers flying around

is it wrong to ignore the tissue or just chuck a side, it belongs to nobody unless u can prove the tissue belongs to u