Singaporeans Actually Do STINK: try our packed trains to decide for yourself

You probably can't understand this if you are usually in the driver seat of your favourite car, or any car, day in and out. But the one thing which 'stinks' in Singapore is the squeeze in the public trains especially in the evening between 6.30 pm and 7.30 pm, and then again between 9 pm and 10 pm, the latter being the retail crowd being done with their window shopping and somesuch. It is just that the trains are packed with people like sardines - an expression that is all quite an anchronism because if you have seen a sardine can lately, it's mostly sauce and air - well, let's say "spam". But that the people in the trains actually have rather bad odour, body odour actually. Yes, the truth is out, Singaporeans SMELL and they STINK after work. It may be the salty diet, the problem with water (we have to buy it and worry about it every day, and even created our very own New Water recycled from our sewer through very savvy osmosis). The folks from China understandly are not used to bathing regularly; Singaporeans shower at night and some do not. The latter wake up in the morning, and in the crispness of the morning, you can smell their overnight sweat from three metres away... Nowadays, most of the Indian (or Pakistani) contract labourers bathe and dress well after their day in the open, and kudos to them, they do smell good, with washed shoes and all. The Chinese labourers are entirely at ease with their sandy and mud-stained boots, sweat stained and dried shirts crumpled from the whole day's use. Then, there are those white collar workers - lean and overweight - men and women - all sorts, who spring a surprise on you when they have to jostle right next to you and the first awkward feeling you experience is their wet or sweaty skin when their arms brush against yours. Nothing you can do about it, really! Or, when the air is suddenly pinched with a staleness from oily sweat and growing bacteria spilling out methaneous waste. Your noise is instantly hit and you feel like you are trapped in some sort of modern gas chamber with a sense of the end being very near as you fight off asphyxia from holding your breath just too long. Then, all of a sudden, you have to open your mouth to breathe and let the air escape into your hurt lungs: I pretend to yawn. Is there anything we can do about this? Do a "drink more water" campaign, remind people to "smell good" with perfume and colonge posters in the subway? Make EDT part of the investment in Singaporean hygiene? Review our diet, invest in R&D and find out if there is such a thing as a smelly gene (to help some people cease to propagate themselves) or if there are reasons why some people have such gut troubles not related to a high protein diet? Singaporeans may otherwise have another problem if no one wants to admit to this phenomena: being perfect ostriches with our heads stuck in the ground - we don't want to deal with this. May be we need ionisers in our public transports. No wonder the buses do smell better, even if the commuters may not. Thankfully, most buses don't get to be as packed like SPAM as the trains. If not in a hurry these days, I skip the trains in those packed evenings, and saunter around to get aboard a spacious ride or take the bus.