Nude Aunty says: I'm just shooing birds away

30 Jun 2007, New paper

IT was an accident and the birds had to be chased away. So claims the woman when The New Paper asked her about her strange routine.

We approached her just as she had returned home.

Madam Tan (not her real name) was unapologetic. The petite and bespectacled woman was neatly dressed in purple slacks and a matching blouse.

At first, she denied throwing anything.

When pressed, she said: 'Sometimes we accidentally throw something outside. You mean you never accidentally drop things outside?'

Even though we had introduced ourselves and showed our identification, she kept demanding to know who we were and which organisation we were from.

We asked her repeatedly about the water issue, but she denied throwing any water. This, even after telling her that she had been caught in the act and pictures of it had been sent to us.

Instead, she complained about neighbours disturbing her and stealing her shoes.

Then she said, abruptly: 'Now I recall. There are a lot of birds; I have to chase the birds away. The birds always come to my place, I have to chase them away.'

So does she throw water out every time she sees birds?

To that, she angrily replied: 'Your house got no birds ah? Everywhere got birds what, I have to chase the birds away.'

We also told her that people walking by and the neigbours' clothes could get wet.

THEY'RE CRAZY

But she got even more riled up and shouted: 'You think what, I stupid ah?

'I see first lah... I throw this side, never hit people's things,' she yelled and gestured to indicate a direction away from where clothes were hanging.

During the brief conversation, she kept repeating her sentences and often insulted her neighbours.

When asked if she usually undresses in front of the kitchen window, she said: 'Siow ah (crazy in Hokkien), they must be seeing ghost.'

The fiesty woman also said: 'I love Ang Mo Kio... I live here 12, 13 years already, I don't want to move just because people give me problems.'

Nude woman dirties laundry

30 Jun 2007, New paper

Neighbours upset by 'showers' of waste water

By Tan Mae Lynn

A FORMER kindergarten teacher has been accused of showering neighbours below her flat with waste water from her kitchen window.

She does this several times daily, according to her neighbours.

It has angered those living below her sixth-floor HDB unit at the Ang Mo Kio housing estate.

They allege that their clothes have been soiled by her actions.

Confrontation with the woman and complaints to the Housing Board hasn't helped.

She's also been throwing paper and rice down the flat, they claim.

Miss Komala, 18, who lives below the woman's three-room flat, said: 'It's been happening for over a year. Sometimes the water smells of fish, sometimes she throws rice down.

'My mother doesn't hang the clothes outside anymore. My mum has gone upstairs to ask her about it before, but she just denied everything.'
Click to see larger image

Miss Komala's family isn't the only one which has had to hang its clothes indoors.

Another resident who gave his name as Mr Azahar, 35, has had a similar experience.

He said: 'My wife hangs the clothes inside the kitchen instead because we don't know when the water will come down. It can happen any time of day or night.

'Sometimes the water smells like urine, other times it's something else.'

Even his pet birds have been hit, he said.

He does not know in which unit the culprit lives, and does not want to ask any of his neighbours living above him.

He said he doesn't want to sour relations as he had moved in less than a year ago.

But others who have lived in the block longer have simply got used to the woman's habit.

Factory worker Madam Wang, 52, said: 'Every day we can see water and paper being thrown down. If I don't see, I'll hear the splash of water. I've had wet pieces of tissue paper land right on my clothes.'

She has not confronted the woman because she claimed the woman can be abusive.

'Once I walked past her flat and she threw something out of her flat. When I looked, she began shouting vulgarities. So I just ignore her.'

The woman's antics have also gained notoriety with residents in the opposite block.

Since the two facing blocks are separated only by a small carpark, residents there claimed they, too, have heard water splashing.

But they are not just bothered about a woman throwing water - it was a naked woman standing by the kitchen window.

One resident in the opposite block, who did not want to be named, said she had heard rumours about a naked woman who frequently throws water out the window.

SEEING IS BELIEVING

She did not believe it until recently when she saw it for herself.

She said: 'I happened to look out the window and saw this naked woman throwing what looked like urine-water down.'

When The New Paper team visited the HDB estate earlier this week, we managed to catch the woman in action.



She was seen undressing at the kitchen window before entering the bathroom. About five seconds later, she appeared at the kitchen window again, peered out and swiftly threw out a container of water.



We went to her flat and knocked on her door several times but she did not respond. On our second attempt the following day, we managed to speak to her.

At first, she denied throwing anything, But later, she claimed she had a reason why she was doing it.



A check with HDB revealed that an officer visited the woman last year. But the board has not received any feedback regarding the woman throwing water out of her flat or exposing herself in the flat.

A HDB spokesman said: 'A resident from the same block reported in May2006 that she was seen throwing rice and other items out of her window.

'When our staff spoke to her about the matter, she denied that she had done so. We have not not received any further feedback on the matter since then.'

On average, the board receives at least one complaint a month about residents pouring water our of their flats.

Nasty Aunties: It's not psychological problem

24 June 2007, New Paper

COULD someone with 'auntie' behaviour be suffering from a psychological problem?

Psychiatrist Lionel Lim dismissed the notion.

For him, the tag is more a stereotype than anything else.

'I don't think there's any psychological basis to label someone as 'auntie',' he said.

'Uncivic behaviour cuts across the board.'

Men and women exhibit such behaviour.

Psychologist Daniel Koh said he does not know of any clinical study or evidence that showed that women are likelier to exhibit anti-social behaviour.

As to menopause possibly causing middle-aged women to act irrationally, he said: 'When someone is at this stage, she tends to experience mood swings or disturbance, anxiety, depression, irritability or fatigue.

'With such symptoms, and combined with work, family (and) relationship responsibilities or commitment, these may cause a woman to behave differently.

'However, it is not all menopausal women who behave like this.'

Judging from clips on YouTube, there seem to be far fewer 'uncles' engaging in such anti-social behaviour (discounting violence). Why is this so?

'Generally men tend to be more tolerant when they get older, while women may stay angrier than ever, falling out with people, irritated by others and feeling frustrated,' MrKoh said.

As for dealing with 'unreasonable' aunties, he advised that one would be better served not arguing.

Even trying to rationalise with them may be pointless as they may not be able to accept it. It may even give them a chance to attack you, he said.

What about recording their behaviour and putting it out for public shaming?

'No, any form of public shaming is not only unhelpful, but it may cause the person to react more badly,' he said.

Nasty Aunties

24 June 2007, New Paper

FIRST THERE WERE BUS UNCLES. NOW...Nasty Aunties

WHAT THE PICTURES SHOW
1. A woman getting aggressive in a carpark
2. Another woman digging her nose on the MRT.
3. A third woman shelling prawns on a Tibs bus

By Ho Lian Yi

THERE are appropriate places to shell prawns.

A bus isn't one ofthem.

But that didn't stop one middle-aged woman from peeling her plastic bag full of crustaceans on a Tibsbus.

A passenger sitting behind who saw what she did was so incensed by her anti-social behaviour that he took out his phone and filmed the entire act.

He then posted the clip online with the intention of shaming the woman.

The passenger, who signed himself off as nicholastansg,, said that at that time, the prawns stank and 'polluted the whole air-conditioned bus'.

When contacted via e-mail, he told The New Paper On Sunday: 'After I finished filming it, I confronted her and asked her why she did that.'



He claimed that from the woman's initial reaction, she seemed 'prepared to show her unreasonableness' until she realised that the person confronting her was a man who didn't 'have a friendly-looking face'.

Mr Tan believed that but for his intervention, the woman would have left the prawn shells on the floor.

After he told her off, she grudgingly picked up the shells, he said.

The woman is not the only 'aunty' in Singapore who has been caught committing anti-social acts that were eventually posted online.

A quick search on YouTube for 'Singapore auntie' comes up with several clips that reinforced the negative image of these elderly or middle-aged women or housewives.

'Kiasu', 'loud' and 'unreasonable' were some of the words that were associated with the stereotype of 'uncouth' women aged 50 and up.

The most infamous is probably the 'Singapore Lift Auntie', who was caught on film as she started chasing and yelling at a man and his daughter, as they cowered in a lift.



Other videos on YouTube included women taking far more plastic bags than they needed, and a woman who, with two others who appeared to be her sister and elderly mother, argued with someone over a carpark lot.






There was even one of a woman combing her wet hair at a corridor of a HDB block and leaving her used wet towel on the parapet every day.



This was posted and described by a person called gongxi88, who said he was her neighbour.

He said he initially wanted to take a picture of the slippers, umbrella and laundry rack that he claimed were blocking the pathway when he caught her in action.

WEIRD BEHAVIOUR

He wrote in an e-mail: 'When she saw me recording her weird behaviour, she purposely moved toward my unit and started her nonsense in front of my video cam.

'She mentioned that she is pretty, so shoot, lah! She even scolded (me with some) bad words.'

He now keeps his door closed to avoid seeing her 'nonsense', but she still does it, he claimed.

Perhaps the most difficult clip to watch is one titled 'Hardcore nose digging auntie on MRT'.



It shows a bespectacled woman , taking up two seats on the train - itself an inconsiderate act - clearing the gunk in her nose energetically.

The uploader's description summed it up: 'Yucks.'

Upon viewing the clip, one woman, 25-year-old copywriter Lena Wong, said: 'I don't know how anyone can tahan (Malay for stand it) filming that for one minute.'

For Miss Wong, stereotypes persist because people prove them right.

Bank officer Melvin Poh, 30, believes it has to do with upbringing and habits.

'That was how they have been doing things all along, so they're used to it,' he said.

However, communications services associate Lye Peixian, 25, felt that the stereotypes have arisen because of how people are portrayed.

In local shows, 'aunties' are always loud and rude, she said.

'A sophisticated middle-aged woman is never seen as an 'auntie' in those shows.'

It is an exaggerated portrayal, she said, adding: 'People of that age do show a bit of those traits, but it's not a high percentage.'

Blogger Lam Chun See, 55, of goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com, cited Jack Neo's cross-dressing character, Liang Ximei, as an example of the 'auntie' stereotype.

Mr Lam's first reaction on seeing the videos was to wonder: 'Could it be they were staged?'

He feels the pigeonholing is unfair as young people do anti-social things, too.

'Different people behave differently. When I go into a lift with all the young girls talking so loudly, I find that very rude. Maybe it's not as bad as digging your nose, but it's not very courteous behaviour,' he said.

What do the women in their 50s think?

Mrs Liu Chye Lian, 50, a bus attendant and a mother of two, said the stereotype is outdated as more older women are concerned about their image.

'Aunties are more high-class now,' she said.

However, she admitted she is acquiring 'auntie' traits as she gets older.

'When I buy things, I bargain very hard sometimes. I guess that's 'auntie'. I'm not scared to bargain!'

Madam Tracy Wang, 44, homemaker and mum to threechildren, was unhappy that people would put such videos online.

She said: 'If I were that person, I would prefer you approach me. (Doing that) doesn't give people a chance to defend their actions.'

SELFISHNESS

She doesn't think 'auntie' behaviour has anything to do with educational levels, but more about selfishness.

'I call these people IMM - I, Myself, Me,' she said.

But she wouldn't want to be called an auntie herself.

'I think it's associated with being low-class, that's why nobody likes to be called auntie,' she said.