Funny we see old people picking trash in Singapore, New York, Hong Kong, capitalist free market system.

I know you don’t see them in China now…but i believe soon they will appear in maybe shanghai and the developed coastal cities as they embrace the capitalist free market system.

funny.

Last week the family were having dinner at a hawker centre in a residential estate and i saw this elderly women. She was wearing a pair of spectacles, hair neatly placed, her attire was clean and tidy with appropriate demeanour. Quite immaculate by middle class standard. She was going around the tables picking empty drink cans.

i remember when i was growing up in Singapore during the 70s, 80s, there were no such “aunties” around. What you had was the occasional vagrant, they usually had some mental problems, barefeet with tattered cloths, long unkept hair wondering in food centres, eating scraps.

Her empty cans big plastic bag was also discreetly lined with newspaper on the inside so as not to appear too obvious of the precious contents.

She must be a Singapore citizen, her mandarin gave that away. What does it mean to be a citizen? Maybe it is meaningless in this new gilded age of globalized economy. Nationals have no meaning in the traditional sense. In this borderless world you recognise and identify more with your class? Elite? Middleclass? Poor?

I felt sad, she looked a lot like my mom. Who would want their mother to do this in Singapore?

Well said. I have met several professionals from China who are now working here. They are now either PRs or citizens. They mentioned that when they first arrived here, what struck them was the sight of so many elderly people working at menial jobs or eking out a living collecting cardboard or cans from trash cans. They went on to explain that in China people worked hard when they were young and when they became old, the state was expected to provide for them. That may be the communist philosophy but I admit that it makes sense. After all, why should we spend our time and energies in nation-building when we cannot hope to reap the benefits later in life? We are told that we have to save for our retirement years because we should not expect the state to provide for us when we are old. It makes a great deal of sense therefore to build our own nest eggs and not be concerned with what happens to the rest of the country. It’s a very selfish attitude but a pragmatic one.

” Why are the elderly in Singapore working so hard? Sweeping thrash, cleaning the roads etc.? The elderly in our countries, stay home and look after grandkids.”

This might be a little ‘out’ from the discussion, but yeah, There is something wrong with our environment somewhere.

I have, over the years, observed from the many aunties and uncles in my own estate, how they would fight over the terrorities they have marked out for themselves. Every corner of my estate is taken up by one aunty or uncle and there is no space left for any new comers.

I have spoken with some of them and they tell me that they had to resort to protecting their turfs, if not, everyone would be attempting to eke out something from it, especially the foreign labourers, the Chinese nationals and Bangladeshis.

I think this uncle may have been late to the scene in his own estate and therefore needed to venture further, thus the taxi ride to South Bridge Road.

We should address the bigger picture, which is, why are our golden generations having to do this? They have contributed to the Singapore Goldmine in the hope that this goldmine would see them through their golden years. Apparently, the gold they have contributed are never going to come back to them, and this is very sad. This government has failed them.

Good story as build up to labour day. It humbles us down to be reminded that this man’s share of the nation’s wealth may have not reached him even after 60 years.

Maybe…, he’ll need 60 more just to attain it.