The House Visit

What's Abd?!!

To begin, Barrack Obama won the Democratic Presidential Nomination despite Hillary Clinton garnering more votes. Guess 'Super Delegates' find Barrack Obama a more promising candidate (What's with the title Super in Super Delegates man? Do they have special powers like Superman??). Hillary Clinton is now probably gunning for the Vice-Presidency which is her best bet to be elected President in the next nomination.

Closer to heart, today my block received a clean up of complete scrubbing and clearance of all kinds of rubbish on all the lift lobbies that I'd otherwise come across. The occasion being, Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Hawazi Daipi was on house visit. Just the night before, the 1st floor lift lobby stank so much of urine. Well, the residents in this area are mostly old and senile and therefore, most of them do inconsiderately just pee anywhere that's most convenient to them. I have seen twice for myself.

Well anyways, the Resident Committee (RC) members sent their first squad of people to inform the residents that the MP was coming to their unit and will be talking to them. So yeah, I sat and waited. When MP finally arrived, well he seemed alright. A checked short sleeved t-shirt, black pants, black belt and sports shoes. Sports shoes? This guy needs a Fashion Police before he goes for his house visits!

Well so he asked me how long I been staying and if I had any concerns about living here. I told him about my concerns of how filthy staying here was and perhaps he should reconsider about the Lift Upgrading Program (LUP) and instead focus on issue of Spalling Concrete that is rampant in this block.

His reply to filthy living conditions with regards to people peeing:

"What can we do about it right?"
(Well maybe you can do some proper education or perhaps install public toilets at void decks to accommodate this issue)

Our exchange of conversations with regards to spalling concrete:

Him: "Well you see, HDB has this rule whereby anything inside the house is the owner's responsibility"

Me: "Well you see, I don't think any of the owners here are aware of such a thing called Spalling Concrete until its too late. By then, preventive measures are too late and only when it happens, then we are aware that there is such preventive assistance measures in place by HDB".

Him: "Well, if you have any problem about this, do inform HDB. They will definitely attend to you."

Me: "It already happened. I'm just informing you only as in recent months, there has been several cases of Spalling Concrete. Perhaps you might want to reconsider LUP and focus on fixing basic necessities in home first".

Him changing topic to run off before he gets caught in my trap: "Oh by the way, have you submitted the form to indicate whether or not you are supportive of the LUP?"

Me: "Not yet. I didn't attend the polling the other time"

Him: "Okay, well you can fill this in and submit it now. Anyway, we're having another polling session later this year."

HDB stands for Housing Development Board. Established to destroy kampong houses and move citizens to smaller units allowing more space for development and to ensure that all citizens has a home regardless of income level.

A guy holding the forms steps forward and hands it to me and MP walks off.

Pretty smart ay being a politician? You learn how to divert attention and scoot off before you get caught in a trap. I just didn't like the standard diplomatic answer. I know how it works. I know what needs to be done. I just needed you to say, I'll look into the matter and give it consideration.

But anyway, he was listening intently to whatever I was saying. Unless he was a really good actor and was able to pretend to listen intently. Politicians do have to learn all these body language and facial language too you know!