We arrived in Singapore last Saturday evening. We are staying with family so on Sunday morning, while everybody was still asleep, I decided to take a stroll to familiarise myself with the neighbourhood.

But is it Art?

Disclaimer: If you are not a native South African, you may find this post boring.
Disclaimer 2: If you are a native South African, you may not find this post funny.

Not far from our home, I came across a horror scene. At first, I walked a circle around it, worried that the scene may be cursed, but then I build up the courage to investigate closer. It was true, somebody really did throw away a Weber braai (for the non-South Africans who did decide to read this article in spite of my warning; a Braai is similar to a Barbeque in the USA and a Barbie in Australia, with the one major difference - in South Africa, it is a religion).

After close inspection, I came to the conclusion that it was definitely still salvageable, but, as I was not planning to practice our South African religion in Singapore, I decided to leave it to its own fate. (I do not know how many South Africans live in Singapore, but I do hope one of you drove by this scene to rectify this horror act.)

The Horror Scene

About 100 meters on I came across another unusual scene. Somebody threw out a suitcase. On closed inspection, I found it in perfect working order. The wheels are actually in a better condition than my own suitcase, and the person who threw it out, even reset the combination lock to 000!

This was it.

I took a photo of this unusual scene. Maybe it could win a local South African competition - in competitions, uniqueness is one sure ingredient of a winning photo!

The Unusual Scene

I decided to go back and photograph the Horror Scene. My theme for the morning was set.

My research on Garbage began. Interesting how much one can learn about a society by looking at their garbage!

The Upgrade

I have a tuff question for my fellow South Africans: Who is brave enough to put a box of an electric keyboard out - next to your gate. (for the non-South Africans; such an act is a sure invitation for a burglary in the foreseeable future - and if you are lucky, it will happen while you are away, if you are not so lucky, it will happen the next night while you are asleep)

The Personal Invite

What did I learn from my garbage walk?

• In an advanced community, people tend to throw away things that is not needed anymore.
• In a not-so-advanced community people tend to keep unused things just for in case it could be of use somewhere in the future.
• In an advanced community, people and pets will not vandalise your garbage bin in search for a morsel.
• In an advanced community, garbage will be collected. A few days ago I was still staying in Vanderbijlpark with my Sister and she mentioned that their garbage is nowadays not necessarily collected on a regular basis anymore, because of the local municipality not always having the money to buy diesel for that garbage truck!
• In an advanced community, people respect the garbage collectors. Did you notice how everything that did not fit into a bin, was neatly packed? To the point that it even created a beautiful scene inviting me to create an art piece!
• In an advanced community, one can put out any garbage without any fear. In a not-so-advanced community, it takes courage, a good alarm system, a monthly armed response subscription and a shotgun next to your bed to do the same!

Is this all only a facade?

This all looked so good, that I got worried that this is just a setup to impress me. So I decided to take my research to the next level. I ventured to the back of a shopping mall, to see what is going on behind the scenes!

The Restuarant for One

What did I found? Everything was clean and well organised! I've eaten in much worse restaurants in Africa than in the scene "The Restaurant for One". This is the scene behind the one restaurant. I will be willing to dine here if their normal seating is oversubscribed!

The scene behind the bakery was also clean and well organised.

The Bakery at 8 Greenwood Avenue

Wait - when zooming in I can see three small pieces of garbage that were dropped without a care!

Maybe it is all just a facade!!!

(This was previously posted on my Weku Blog)