House Keeping

Arrived at my 'Studio' annexed to the back of the Museum Gallery USM and for lack of better things to do decided to do some house cleaning in the general area. I have a little problem with messy environments especially when it takes just a little effort to get the place together into a more presenttable area. It is hard to accept the genral attitude of letting the environment go to hell by littering and hapzardly discarded materials after being used. This is an institution that champions the sciences and the environment in particular but this is seldom relfected when one takes a closer look at the backyards of some of the buildings around the campus. What would Mr.Brown and the likes of him who originally had designed and set up this whole facility in the early days of the development of the general area in Penang. This however is not the only location that is neglected in the whole Island and if one wanders around one can loose onself into garbage depression. It is sad that we humans has the tendency to create so much garbage out of our sense of being creative, that while create so many great and beautiful things for ouselves we have the tendency to leave it up to others to clean up after us. often enough you will find some good and reuseable materials thrown away along with the waste.

In education it is imperative that the idea of picking up after oneself is being instilled into the student's minds right from the onstart of the first project they undertake. The classroom or studio or lab should be maticulously clean prior to the students entry and this fact should be pointed out to the students so that they have a very good idea of how they should leave the place at the end of the day. Just as parents moan and groan at their kids about cleaning up after themselves teachers and employers too should insist upon this habit of making sure that the environment in which they operate is treated with great respect before and after use: this is the first principle of Safety at Work.

One of the lessons that I learned having lived in Japan for three year is the fact that the Japanese are very particular about their work area being presentable and not cluttered. Except for a few individuals who personally leave their work area as they prefer it to be regardless of its state, just the way they like as they can find what they are looking for desoite the mess kind of attitude, the general public frowns upon messiness. Perhaps due to the lack of space for themselves due to the lack of land areas the Japanese maintains a high efficiency in the landuse and the respect for space. A clean well ordered environment reflects upon a mind simmilar in nature, messy space messy mind.

Working for three years as a Health and Safety Officer for three different comapnies at the Petronas Refinery Project in Kerteh, Trengganu and later in Gebeng,Pahang, I practiced this principle when executing my responsibilities at the sites. Iinsisted upon good housekeeping as a priority for every project that I took care of. It worked as most of the workers understood my intentions and saw the wisdom of this principle which resulted in no accidents and smooth flow of work while I was the Safety Officer. It is often overlooked that good housekeeping is like keeping ones home in good order to avoid clutterings which inevitably leads on to accidents or other negative effects like the breeding of mosquitoes and the destruction of good amterials due to wetness or exposed to the elements. Good House keeeping also ensures the proper flow of traffic and excess and egress when times of emrgencies demands for a safe passage through the area. It is needless to say that cleanliness is next to Godliness in all circumstances whether in like or in the hereafter.