4.
Difficulties faced in the work of Health and Cleanliness
Educating the public on health matters is like educating a child:
some study and improve; others are too lazy to care. There are always members
of society who are so utterly selfish that they do not mind who does the work,
provided they themselves can escape it. I know a few people like that living
in the multi-storey building that overlooks the roof of my school. They are
not poor people, and they are not uneducated. But some of them insist on throwing
their cake-boxes, fruit skins, newspapers, and even dirty things from the toilet,
on to my roof. To find out who does this would require someone standing there
all day and night watching. And this kind of selfishness is happening all
over Hong Kong. I think stern action is needed against this type of person
who passes his responsibilities off to other people.
What But I must add that the public are not always to blame for dirt.
is one supposed to do with a dirty piece of paper in the street if there are not
enough litter-bins around? It takes something of a saint to put the dirty
ice-cream paper or sweet paper into one's handbag or pocket and go looking for
a litter bin. And we don't have too many saints around in Hong Kong.
One bad influence is what I might call "official dirt", garbage heaps
left in some parts of the colony for days without collection. These may not
usually be found on the Peak, but I have certainly seen them in places like
resettlement estates. On a recent visit to Tsz Wan Shan Estate, I had to
climb over rubbish piled waist high, to cross the main road of the estate.
Tenants said it had been there for a fortnight; officials said that the
garbage collectors had stopped work, When the stench reached the nostrils of
the police in their post nearby, they ordered its removal! But this kind of
nuisance and health danger happens all too often.
15.
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