Letter: No nonsense

From Herbert Blankesteijn

I was interested in Feedback’s story about heavy prison sentences in
Singapore for those responsible for rupturing telecoms cables and I was struck
by the apparent effectiveness of this threat (4 December)

In a zoo in the Netherlands I once saw a man feeding chips to fish in a pond.
When his son pointed to a sign explaining that feeding the animals was
prohibited, the father said, “So what?” and carried on. In Holland we are very
tolerant, you see, and people know their behaviour will be tolerated.

By contrast, in a Nairobi zoo which I visited in 1993, I saw a sign on the
fence that separated crocodiles and spectators. It said: “Visitors throwing
litter into this pit will be required to retrieve it.”

There was no litter inside. In the Netherlands, we call this a “no-nonsense
policy”.

Houten, The Netherlands