When the monsters in us win
2010/01/11
STEPHEN King's famous quote: "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win."
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| The Jotic building which houses the state tourism office is also the one-stop centre of the Johor Baru City Council’s housing planning development office. |
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| Although it was highlighted in the newspaper last August, nothing was done to remove the stains caused by the leaking roof of public toilet in the Johor Tourist Information Centre. |
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| Nothing has changed. It’s the same old stagnant sink and stained mirror in the public toilet. |
This is true, at least I believe it. The monsters and ghosts won when it came to my 2009 resolutions.
Cleaning up the year's clutter from my unit, I found a piece of paper with my 2009 resolutions.
There were 10 things that I wanted to work on last year, among them, losing weight, kicking a bad habit, keeping fit, saving money and sending handmade greeting and thank-you cards to those who touched my life.
It seemed I was extremely focused and committed to fulfilling these resolutions then as it had deadlines and captions.
Out of the 10 resolutions, I fulfilled only three of it, much to my dismay.
Instead of typing new resolutions for this year, I am going to work intensely on those I did not fulfill last year.
With this in mind, there were many human interest stories reported last year, where the authorities promised to find a solution to the many complaints received from the public.
These include repairing damaged roads, cleaning up dumping grounds, clearing stagnant drains that are infested with mosquitoes and also keeping certain public amenities in working order.
One example is the poor condition of public toilets in the Johor Tourist Information Centre (Jotic) building that was reported in August last year.
Jotic is located in Jalan Air Molek, Johor Baru, just next to the Johor Baru Court building. The building also houses the TGIF restaurant and has a food court called Anjung Damai.
It is also the one-stop centre of the Johor Baru City Council's housing planning development office.
However, the toilet facilities there are much to be desired.
It is disgusting, dirty and is in such a dilapidated state that one wonders why the Johor Baru City Council which manages the building has not done anything about it.
Upon entering, the toilet, a dustbin that is used as a door stopper welcomes you.
The roof has missing panels. There are two sinks which are faulty with stagnant water. The squatting cubicle water closet's flush system is spoilt and the tiled walls have stains from the leaking roof. The toilet bowl looks as though it was cleaned years ago.
On Dec 5, it was reported that about RM50 million has been allocated for infrastructure improvement projects by the Johor Tourism Action Council and the state Economic Planning Unit to boost tourist arrivals here.
State Tourism and Domestic Trade Committee chairman Hoo Seong Chang said the projects were part of a drive to improve security, cleanliness and comfort for tourists, with the prime objective of improving Johor's image.
Hoo added that local councils should also play their part by ensuring facilities like public toilets were well maintained and improving the landscape of public areas, especially around tourist attractions.
Today, the toilets look the same, or maybe worst, so it only goes to prove that monsters are real, and ghosts are real too.
They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. They won in this situation too.
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