Last month, I returned to Singapore to visit my friend in Ang Mo Kio after 20 years. This time, I was awed by the effort in turning this Housing Board area into a big garden. All those palm trees, beautiful flowering plants and wonderful landscaping designs are making the low- to middle- income residential area look like high-income condominiums. Unfortunately, the cleanliness is no longer there. Plastic bags, plastic drink bottles and food containers, foam containers, cigarette butts and newspapers were all over the streets in Ang Mo Kio, and they stayed in the same location for days. Students threw trash onto the roadsides although trash cans were only a few steps away. I am saddened by such deterioration which completely destroys Singapore's Garden City image.

My Singaporean friend told me the effort to keep Singapore clean has become lax. Schools no longer offer civic education. Street cleanings were done by contractors and perhaps Ang Mo Kio's jobs were unfortunately awarded to irresponsible contractors, he added. But I wonder whether even a responsible cleaning contractor can keep the streets clean if the people keep littering all day long.

I visited Japan before I came to Singapore and I learnt a valuable lesson from my visits to these two countries. The streets in Japan were very clean even though there were no visible trash cans. How did the Japanese keep their streets so clean without placing trash cans on the streets? I rather think it is the result of successful civic education which Singapore seems to have given up. Has Singapore become too complacent about its 'clean' reputation?

Maria Kleyman (Ms)
San Francisco, USA