Hygiene and public toilets in Singapore.

The other day, I was returning home, with my family, from an outing. My two eldest sons just happened to want to go to the toilet. Luckily (or perhaps not so luckily) there was one nearby.

I noted the "20 cents" entry fee sign at the entrance to the toilets. Seated there was a quiet man, who was almost not there, so little presence did he have. The coins beside him, on the desk, had more presence.

"Ainan," I began to my eldest son, "Because they are charging 20 cents entry, the toilets will be very dirty.", I predicted.

He didn't understand why I predicted so, but listened, without comment.

I dropped the coins in front of the man, who picked them up, in silence. It seemed that he only saw the coins, and not us.

Ainan and Fintan went into the toilets...and I peeked around the corner to see how they were. Sure enough, the entire toilet area was wet, smelly and dirty...just as predicted.

I made sure they washed their hands when they left.

Now, my question is: why, in Singapore, are the toilets invariably clean and in good condition, when they are free (like in Shopping Centres), but invariably dirty and smelly, when they are not free?

It is bizarre. Whenever I have been asked to pay for admission to a toilet, in Singapore, the toilets are always dirty and uncared for. It is most odd, that the more it costs, the less you get.

I would welcome an explanation from anyone who knows why this is so. It doesn't seem to make any sense. However, it does indicate that whatever money is generated by charging for the toilets is not actually used for maintaining them. Clearly, the owners see them as profit centres of some kind...rather than see their public responsibility to make them civilized places to use.

Is this a problem in other countries? Are free toilets great and paid toilets awful, where you come from? Comments please.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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