To date, efforts to coax people who eat at hawker centres to return their trays have not made much headway; the anti-littering drive, too, could do better.

Now, there is talk about having LED lights on pavements to accommodate "smartphone zombies".

We should inculcate into the young people in Singapore the need to be civic-conscious; to care for the environment, to be considerate to the people around them and to be responsible citizens.

We need to analyse why some of those lessons that are taught in school do not filter down for the betterment of Singapore society.

Until we find out why, we will continue to live in a cleaned (rather than clean) city guided not by values but by legislation, by systems and by technology, and we will continue to see zombies walking our streets.

Ho San Cheow