Checking on Neighbours? - Singapore

Hey neighbour, don't be a stranger
A poll of 200 households reveals that up to 20 per cent have never spoken to their neighbours
By Mavis Toh

THEY have been neighbours in the Lentor estate for 20 years but housewife Lin Su Li and the folks next door may as well be living on different planets.
Mrs Lin, 60, knows nothing about the people living just a few metres away - not their names, what they do for a living or even how many actually live in the terrace house.

'Singaporeans are all the same,' she said. 'We keep to ourselves and don't interact with neighbours.'

That is sadly true with a Sunday Times poll of 200 households finding that many Singaporeans are generally not too chummy with the people next door.

Even more disturbing, about 53 per cent said they would 'do nothing' even if they felt something amiss, such as not seeing their neighbours for a long period of time.

The poll mirrored a tragic reality last week when the badly decomposed bodies of 82-year-old Mr Wong Tong Seng and his daughter were found in their Lorong Ah Soo flat.

More recently, on Friday, a 76-year-old cleaner who lived alone in her Jalan Bukit Ho Swee flat was discovered only two days after she died in her bed.

She was discovered only when her nephew turned up at her flat to check on her after she did not turn up for work for two days.

About 20 per cent of those polled had never even spoken to their neighbours while most would only chat when they bumped into each other at the lift lobby in the corridor.

The survey also found 81 per cent did not have their neighbours' phone numbers and 60 per cent did not even know their neighbours by name. These were consistent across all housing types.


Abridged.

SOURCE: straitstimes
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We all must make the effort to know our neighbours. Difficult thing to do, especially, when we often have the impression that neighbours value their privacy.