Let me give my viewpoint on the issue of 'chopeing' of empty tables at food courts and hawker centres in Singapore.
Look at this picture above, I am sure you are familiar with this scene. People in Singapore who work in downtown central CBD, or in town like Orchard have the habit of booking or reserving (called 'chopeing' in Singlish) the table for themselves first, and then they go and make an order of their chicken rice, hor fun (dry noodles), wanton mee or nasi bryani.
I think this behavior while it is a solution, is not ideal. I have travelled to many countries in the West and East and I do not see this kind of behavior. Perhaps, in Singapore, we always 'MUST WIN' and having the table at our disposal when and wherever we want before we dine is a necessity.
On the one hand, I think the use of paper tissues wrapped in plastic packets is very unfriendly to the environment, and we have massive amounts of waste to dispose daily, that I will put up in a separate post another day.
On the other hand, maybe if we reduce our 'kiasuness' and stop fighting to 'win all the time' we can actually be a more gracious society in the overall scheme of things.
Let empty tables lie. At the very least, get one person to sit at the table and book the table for the others in that party of (say) 4 or 5.
Secondly, bring back the handkerchief !
(I am hearing howls of protest from the Gen Z and even Millenials).
Carpe Diem !
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