SPRING CLEANING

Never heard of it? It means a major cleaning throughout the house. The whole family work in hands to clean the house top spot, every corner and every inch of the house. Most of us live in terrace houses, linked and sharing walls with neighbours. Those with plenty of cash or with land would build a bungalow, a house or even a hut in RPT, village or in government's land.

Everyone needs a place to sleep, to seek shelter, to watch TV, to play chongkak and also to mate. When we look at our Malaysian home, we seem to forget the need of space. A room is 10 by ten. A livingroom of 15 by ten. A home with two bedrooms - one for mum and dad, and another for the girl, if any. The boys stay in the livingroom, where the TV, the sofa set, the computer, the mini aquarium, and some other small stuff are arranged cafefully to fit in. The sofa becomes a bed at night, the oher boys sleep on the comforters, or foldable mattress. They twist and turn trying to get cozy, the older boys watch late night shows, the girls sleep tight in the small room and they don't have enough space to put a study desk. Where do the kids study? Or do revision ? Or to complete homework? The so-called dining room is shared with the living room, where the table is filled with food cover, tins, toys, dad's ash tray and the is no space to put books to study. Can they study with the blarring TV on? Can they use the "taman's musolla" to do discussion with their friends ?

That is a scenario of a low cost house that costs about RM25,000 or more. That's what low income Malaysians afford to pay of monthly RM125.00 installment. Pity them.

But who started this small space houses? The British ? Maybe. These caucasions don't like big houses. They don't like to put many things in their home. The have winter, spring, fall and summer. Winter, they stay inside, with the heater on, spring they clean up their homes,and summer,they go out travelling to other colder countries, like Malaysia. Malaysians, we stay at home most of the time. They can't afford to travel to foreign countries to beat the heat. They stay in the livingroom watching sitcoms or local dramas. I think we initially started to build home like theirs, in the early era, during colonization. Then, it went on and on, till now.

In college or university the room is small to fit four students because that is our normality. What do we get, kids who don't excell in their studies, their minds are narrowed and they can't think rationally... maybe because of the small space that they are surrounded with. Don't we have enough land in this country?