SPACE is a very important factor for the healthy development of human emotions and overall well-being. Crowded housing areas can be a contributing factor to stunted mental and social health.

It is estimated that 50 per cent of our population will be urban-based by 2010. Yes, it’s going to be much more crowded in our towns and cities.

Housing lots have become smaller and playing fields have literally disappeared in the last 20 years.

Children now play in the streets. The token playgrounds that were built in some older housing estates are neither functional nor big enough. Some are overgrown with grass.

Zoologist Desmond Morris, a former curator of the London Zoo, mentions in his book, The Naked Ape: “Under normal conditions, in their natural habitats, wild animals do not mutilate themselves… attack their offspring, develop stomach ulcers, become fetishists, suffer from obesity, form homosexual pair-bonds or commit murder. Among human city dwellers, needless to say, all of these things occur…

“Other animals do behave in these ways under certain circumstances, namely when they are confined in the unnatural conditions of captivity. The zoo animal in a cage exhibits all these abnormalities that we know so well from our human companions.

“Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo.”

City planners and those responsible for schools should take note of this study. More space has to be allocated for children and adults alike.

Social problems and juvenile delinquency has been on a steady rise in the last 20 years.

This could be a consequence of residential areas offering little or no space for children to run and play safely near their homes under the watchful eyes of their parents.

In the 1950s and 1960s, even housing areas assigned for menial workers in estates and the Public Works Department were built in compounds with a playing field right in front of the rows of houses.

All government quarters were also provided with playing fields and space for children nearby.

In Seremban, such was the case at Melaka Road, Channer Road and Rahang Square.

We played games such as rounders, cops-and-robbers, cricket, football and hockey. It’s sad that such is not the case today.

While the upper classes have golf clubs and social clubs complete with swimming pools, tennis, squash and badminton courts for family members, the majority of the population has no such luxury.

Even the playing fields in the older and established schools have become smaller.

The High School in Muar, for instance, had four fields in the 1950s.

Only two remain today even though the school’s population has tripled.

JOHAMI ABDULLAH, Seremban

Source: NST – March 3, 2008