void of existence

Recently, there have been a lot of reports on wet markets.  It started out when a supermarket chain wanted to buy over the lease rights from a wet market operator.  They even served eviction notice to the current tenants before they got the approval from the relevant authorities for the change of use.

Then there were much clarifications from the authorities and the final word is that there will be no changes to the wet markets.  In fact, as long as the wet markets can substain operationally, they will be allocated with a space.

After that, a journalist by the name of Jessica Sim….or is it Lim?… stirred up some pretty bad shit by saying how outdated those wet markets are and that they should be abolished (along side with all outdated culture practices) so as to be replaced by modern, clean, air-con supermarket.

In reaction, many defended how wet markets provide for what supermarket cannot.  Be it culture, freshness, etc etc.  The reasons why wet markets are in the conditions that they are in, etc etc.

Thats roughly what happened.  Here’s my opinion.

I agree with the following:

-  Wet markets are getting outdated.

-  Wet markets will die out with the older generation.

-  Wet markets need to be freshen up.

-  Wet markets are NOT a cultural assets.

-  Wet markets can be a community focus point.

But I do not believe that we should just phased out wet markets in a blink of an eye, like what our good friend Ms Jessica Sim/Lim wrote.  There are implications to simply phasing them out.  To name the most obvious, what will become of the stallholders, who have probably been doing this for a good part of their lives and probably have little skills in any other areas.

We should perhaps re-train them to cater to a more value added service orientated kind of wet markets.  But before that, let’s look at the setup of wet markets themselves.

Wet markets are like our Budget Terminal at the Airport.  It is crude box with bare necessities.  Supermarkets and Hypermarkets are more like the main terminals at the Airport.  The setup  of the place has a problem in itself.  Wet markets are dimly lit.  Most have bad drainage.  Cheap tiles that get very slippery when wet and take forever to dry.  The list goes on and on.  The point is that if you build a dump, it will be a dump.

Thats why the architect of such places need to wake up before they cause the wet market to become irrelevant.  Send these designers and decision makers to Granville Island.  Look at THAT market there.  Granted that the climate is different, but we should make stalls bigger and with a work area at the back (NOT THE FRONT).

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