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

>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?

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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?

Anyway, a smile really is contagious haha

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.

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?

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.

Yup, you’re right. thanks.

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!