1 Bring the Shine Back to Penang.
The state of Penang is known as the Penang Darul Sampah ( Trash), and you can see it everywhere. Just look at the drains or rivers, or sea. You can see plastic bottles, styrofoams, cartons, bottles,...etc, proudly displayed for all to see. Just visit a Pasar Malam (Night Market) and you'll see trash all over. Once after buying something at a Pasar Malam, I was looking for a dustbin to discard the trash, but could not find one. The trader just told me to throw it on the road, and someone will clear the rubbish later. I guess there is a system here, i.e. throw now, and later someone will clear it. My take is that this will create a mentality that basically teaches everyone including kids, that since this is not your house, and someone will clear it later, it is perfectly fine to throw your rubbish anywhere. What is a dustbin for if no one uses them? The gov't of the day needs to change the system and policy to educate the public that it is never right to throw your rubbish everywhere, and expect some garbage man to come clean up your mess later. This is one bad habit that will take strict enforcement from the gov't to get everyone to comply. If need to get example of how to enforce, just do a "lawatan sambil belajar" ( learning while visit) trip to Singapore. Over there, even construction works e.g. road or buildings looked neat and no debris overspilling over public areas. Since this year is Visit Penang Year, I am sure tourists appreciate clean and pleasant, and not smelly surroundings.
Image via Wikipedia
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