Friday Blues...

Okay, I'm finally here in Massachusetts.

Everything has been great. The house we have is lovely, the people are friendly, the weather is fine and the classes and luncheon talks for the pre-session has been phenomenal.

All except one thing.

I really dislike walking to schools on Friday morning. I did it yesterday and I dread it. Why? The reason is simple. In the city of Medford (perhaps even the whole of MA?), the trash collection is on Friday mornings. So on Thursday nights, everyone brings out their week of trash to the sidewalk. Now just imagine that. A week of swill, rubbish and grime. That's gonna produce give the whole street one unimaginable maladourous experience. To top it up, Friday morning itself will see a swarm of dumpsters trawling the city streets emptying the traSh cans or bins.

To sum it up, it's not really pleasant. However, I found this whole episode interesting.

In Singapore, we have dumpsters everyday. Trash gets cleared and you never get such an experience. The question however is, is it efficient? What is a dump truck clear a neighbourhood and hardly has any haul to empty? Is that a wasted trip? It depends. For one, we must provide the service because it would seem highly unacceptable to Singaporeans. On the other hand, it is also reflective of the mentality of the people. Consistency. We need to keep clearing out the trash daily. We cannot allow things to just build up.

The logic here however is one that goes with efficiency. It works. It ain't broken. It doesn't need fixing.

Of course then, you'd get a Friday stinker. It's your choice. Consistency versus efficiency.