1. Researchers have examined many cultures and traditions to find the virtues believed to be essential for living well. This proved impossible--but the following six kept turning up: justice, humaneness, temperance, wisdom, courage and transcendence. The odd one out is transcendence as they acknowledged it is not strictly a virtue in the sense of requiring specific behaviour.
2. Psychologists have found no one ever learns to tolerate excessive noise.
3. The above are taken from page 67 and 57 of The Age Of Absurdity by Michael Foley.
4. The neighbour is able to continue with their works because of Head, Pasir Ris HDB Branch Office (HBO). Everything stays in place as no proper investigation has been conducted, and the neighbour can be assured there is no enforcement.
5. The long-time relation between the neighbour and officers at Pasir Ris HDB Branch Office is a disadvantage to the owner and future owner of his flat. Since HDB would not consider facts lay out on the neighbour, officers, and people in the flat across the neighbour, it is for high officials to take it up.
6. Despite the owner having wrote to the MPs, HDB, PSC, Police and President, it has been to no avail. Insiders and MPs assisted, Ministers urged, but the situation continues to be a problem. The officers, who are behind it all along, should not be allowed to affect the integrity of the government.
7. After the last post, noise has lessen considerably but muffled rumble and thump, knock and other noises from works carried out could be heard. It is still an annoyance over the day, including early morning and at night.
8. On 26 Jan 11 an estates officer from HDB Hub, and Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and fellow officer from the Branch Office, visited the owner. The estates officer asked if an internal inquiry was conducted would the owner accept its findings. She also said the neighbour will be carrying out works in the flat and not to mistake it for the noise he complained about. Presumably permit for works are issued from the Branch Office, and all things considered, it occurs to the owner it could be inimical.
9. A summary of main events to date:
a) The owner wrote two letters to Pasir Ris HDB Branch Office, and had a meeting with HBO and the Officer-in-Charge(OIC). HBO said there was a recent tranfer of the neighbour's flat when it should be nine years ago. The owner asked for an acknowledgment and received a signed photocopy of his letter, which was with two lines missing that referred to the OIC.
b) The maid mentioned in his two letters was allowed to continue for four months until someone other than officers from the Branch Office stopped her. A similar event with the first owner took place when the occupier was allowed to continue for three months before he was evicted. In the first, the maid was not at her registered place of work and, in the second, the occupier was an illegal occupant.
c) The owner wrote to the Ministry of Manpower whether the maid was with the neighbour. He wanted to show the neighbour used the maid for their works, and they did not live in the flat but lived at the place where the maid was registered.
d) At the owner's first Meet-the-People Session(MPS) no MP was in session, the interviewer said he would refer to HBO and gave the name of his brother as his own. Later the owner was introduced to the brother, he was also the interviewer at the last Meet-the-People Session, and just after the owner first posted in his blog he spoke to him outside his flat. His behaviour showed he was for the neighbour and against the owner.
e) Four days after the first MPS, personnel shifted into the flat across the neighbour. Thereafter, a force-entry into the neighbour's flat and a break-in at the owner's flat. The details are in the first post Report under Findings.
f) The owner wrote to the MP, who had represented him after the first MPS, the events of maid, force-entry and eviction, and went to see him with a second letter the neighbour used noise to intimidate and signal. HBO followed with a reply to the owner with a copy to the MP asking the owner to seek his own solutions.
g) After his reply there was a TV broadcast on perceived injustice. The owner enquired over the phone and wrote to the company for the address flashed on the TV screen, but he could not get help.
h) Before meeting the MP the owner saw an elder, and the owner saw him again at his next MPS with the area's MP. The elder may have influenced Community Centre members because the owner was turned away at the next MPS with Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service.
i) Noise was heightened after the meeting with the area's MP, and the owner refused the OIC entry into his flat to check for noise because he knew it was pre-arranged.
j) Someone sent to the owner the bcc from HBO to Chairman, Residents Committee, post-dated the same day he met the Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service. The event in the bcc, a week after the owner refused the OIC, was intended to discredit the owner.
k) The Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service wrote to Town Council in order to by-pass HBO. Town Council then wrote to the owner he would hear from HDB soon, but no one came. They did not come because they knew the people in the flat across the neighbour were watching out for the neighbour.
l) The Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service rebuked an official in parliament. This was about three months after the owner met the Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service and received the bcc. It was also the day the Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service asked the owner whether someone visited him after he wrote to the Town Council. Other events showed there could be connection to official in high places.
m) HBO sent an estates officer and OIC to visit the owner after the post Prospect to inform they did not find machine-tool in the neighbour's flat. This was a ploy. Item i) and j) indicate HBO staged heightened noise, send OIC to check for noise in the owner's flat, and asked Chairman to explain good neighbourliness to him.
n) HBO sent two persons, one a counsellor, to visit the owner after he posted Record. When pressed his purpose for coming, the counsellor said it was to help him cope.
o) HBO sent the counsellor, a police officer, an estates officer and the OIC to persuade the owner to take up mediation after the post Discovery, and to let him know the people in the flat across the neighbour had nothing to do with his problem.
p) At the same time Commanding Officer from Pasir Ris Neighbourhood Police Centre wrote they were unable to find evidence of the alleged noise or criminal offence in reply to the owner's letter to the President. He did not refer to the people in the flat across the neighbour, although this was an important item in the letter to the President.
q) Also, the area's MP informed the owner in an email he had referred his complaint in Discovery to the Branch Office. The post is a list of facts that the authorities could ascertain, and included a number of complaints against HBO. HBO, who is Head of the Branch Office, chose not to reply.
r) The owner listed instances where insiders assisted him in the post Civics. An example is Civic Advocator that published his email on the force-entry and bcc and, eleven days later, a statement from the Minister-in-Charge of Civil Service on a lookout for "bold and visionary" leaders and giving public service leaders different and challenging job assignments. The blogsite allows for comment.
s) The next post Public asks whether there could be a standard of propriety for officers even if no evidence is found against them. Afterall, the owner has shown quite clearly officers are the cause of the problem.
t) The owner wrote to the President, the Police and the Ministers, and there were replies. The owner quoted statement made by Ministers from the newspaper, and new appointment of high officials were reported. The statements and appointments are in Ethics. These had an effect as noise was reduced. The post also refers to unethical behaviour of officers at the Branch Office.
u) The posts Encounter and Comment have most of the details. The first on the people who prevented the owner from a solution, and the second on the motive of the officers who wanted to keep it under wrap.
v) The post Question asks the authorities to make an assessment whether the officers knew and allowed the neighbour to work a trade. And the owner wrote to Public Service Commission(PSC) to look into the conduct of officers.
w) The post Authority has the letter to PSC. PSC exercises disciplinary control over public officers, and administers rules and regulations governing the code of conduct. There was no reply.
x) The post Petition is a request to high officials to investigate the goings-on at the Branch Office because HDB would not. HDB did not because of HBO's standing; in effect, they forgo direct command over him.
10. A summary of events on the neighbour:
a) For more than five years the flat was with the first owner only the owner's mother saw and spoke to him a few times. The present owner and his wife were seen initially and, later, an occupier most of the time until he was evicted.
b) The first owner put up the flat for sale in '98, but it was not sold.
c) After the eviction in '99, which was not recorded, the first owner was allowed to tranfer the flat to the present owner to continue with their work.
d) The present owner was given a warning from a man who came to live in the flat across the neighbour. Following which, the flat was quiet for four years because it was unoccupied.
e) The flat was put up for sale by the present owner in '06, it was not sold, and they restarted work in '07.
f) The owner heard the maid carrying out work in the flat for four months after his complaint until she was stopped suddenly. She was seen with the present owner's family, but her registered place of work was not at the flat. The family would have lived at the place where the maid was registered while using the flat for their work.
g) The people in the flat across the neighbour who moved in on Feb 08 took control of the situation in favour of the neighbour. Details are in the post Encounter Item 20 to 24.
h) The post Neighbour has more details.
(To find the post Neighbour, for example, google complainproper neighbour.)
