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Saturday, July 2, 2011

A security guard for each residential tower, why not?

What I had wanted to note today is how much I love HK service. Seriously, I think Singapore will never measure up when it comes to the personal touch.

Take for example, I have free dry cleaning pickup delivery service. Because the company hire local people, and they serve particular district, these staff becomes regular faces and know their clients on name basis.

Just the other day, I forgot the dry cleaning uncle was coming on sat to drop off the dry cleaning and I went off to catch a movie with my partner. He called my mobile when no one answered the door and I was horrified to have forgotten. However, the uncle said he will leave the clothes with my tower security guards. I was muttering to myself that I had forgotten to send another 2 more pants for dry cleaning but I was leaving for my Australia trip already the next day. The uncle heard me and was agreeable with him for me to leave the pants at the security guard and he will make an extra trip the next day to pick it up without me having to call the hotline again. I honestly was so grateful! This is in addition that I can freely call the delivery uncle anytime just to check if he is coming soon for drop off in case I need to run off with errands. I dont know how it is in Singapore now and if they have such good service but as far as I rem the last time, no such thing. With all the foreign workers coming in and replacing locals for such "blue collar" jobs, I fail to see how local service will be better than before I left the city.

With that, I wanted to point out how handy it was to have your own security guards for each tower. I never quite understand or rather i know why, but just annoyed that Singapore condo couldnt provide such similar practice. Why do they build so many towers in one complex and do not make provisions to allow individual guards is senseless. DO you seriously expect the security guard at the main entrance to remember all the residents in one huge complex?

For one, having individual security guards at each tower (in air con indoor) will definitely be better at providing security because the guards will know all the resident by name and relatively the floor they lived in. So strangers are easily identified. Secondly, having your own security guard at each tower can be handy at times like this where they act as my delivery pickup and staging area when I am away overseas or just out. Thus I never felt like I needed a helper or someone at home to man the house. Thirdly, the security guards always make it a point to rem which resident is out on trips and the length of it. Fourthly, this provide job opportunities but then again, in Singapore, we are supposedly already short of "qualified security guards" supposedly. Interesting how Hong Kong can have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many good quality local security guards but Singapore such a "civilised" and "developed" and "forward looking" country should have such major problem.

When I was growing up, even though we were in the point block HDB, we had our own security guards because the residents form their own committee and gather resident opinions, pool money and we hired our own guards. I still have very fond memory of the 2 Malay security guards who rem all the residents from level 1 to level 25. One even taught me how to draw the kampong houses. So I must admit, we had a pretty good security system in place and we didnt even need what shitty grassroot or RC people at all back then. Our block was probably the most unique and desirable building in the whole estate with our own "mama shop" and personalised guards. No govt intervention needed either. I was told in the past in the 80s, the residents in the same block had even initially wanted to pool money to secure and gate the lift area but the HDB denied the idea, but now in modern days, u will be lucky if your neighbor even want to talk to you.

I couldnt rem how long we had them but it must be over 10+years. One of the uncle passed away from old age and the other retired... To be honest, I did miss them. It was very sad to see the table them and no one was there. Then the stupid HDB upgrading came, stupidly and senselessly moved the letter box away from the lift area to an obscure corner round the corner. This resulted in a significant increase in paper littering because "no one" else was watching. I think govt and HDB "improvements" only made the living condition worse than better. The playground was prettier but less safe with crappy playthings. The tiling was uglier. The new paint colours were gaudy. The bus stop shelter didnt even extend to my block. So honestly, we were better off then without all these "grand" ideas by the people hired by the people in white.  Oh well...

I think the day I have to leave all my network here and return to a "stranger island" to me will be a very sad day for me. Till then, I might as well enjoy every bit of HK while I can. It really is a more pleasant place to stay in general.

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