Forum: Let's learn to cope with perceived evils of choping at crowded eating places

To me, the issue of choping, or reserving space, is quite simple (Rethink practice of 'choping' in communal spaces, Aug 15; and Rules on choping not applicable to all situations, Aug 18). When I see an umbrella spread across a table or a packet of tissues on the table, they tell me that someone was there before me - so he is ahead of me in the queue for the table, and also in the queue for food.

If I had gone to queue for food and then walked around looking for a table, it is not the fault of the person who prioritised things the other way round.

We just need to learn to cope with the perceived evils of choping.

Bigger issues contributing to overcrowding are inconsiderate customers who hang around and chat long after their meal is over while others are circling for seats, as well as boorish customers who place additional tissue packs around them to prevent other customers from sitting near them.

Back in the 1950s when cinemas had free seating, my mother choped seats for her friends by tying handkerchiefs around the arm rests in between seats.

In the 1960s, patients who arrived before the government clinics opened for the day, queued by placing empty bottles outside the clinics (in those days, patients had to supply bottles to the Government in exchange for the medication which they would receive later). They then sat in nearby shade to wait.

Today, long queues can form at polyclinics each morning before they open. Perhaps the sick and the elderly struggling to hold their positions in the queue should be allowed to chope their place while waiting.

Chow Hon Meng

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