Neglect of elderly - Singapore government partly to be blamed
While many people are travelling during the Chinese New Year, it must not be forgotten that each year, Singapore welcomes more than 10,000 new citizens. Many of these new citizens take the opportunity to visit their parents and other family members - not only during Chinese New Year but also during the Ramaddan month, during Deepavali andon other holidays.
Some travel with the entire family so it allows them to bond together as a family. Hence, the issue of neglect of the elderly in Singapore is not necessary due to a loss of our cultural norms. However, structural changes in society has made bonding more difficult. And I believe the government has made this task a bit more difficult to surmount.
In earlier days, it is common to have three generations of the same family staying together in a large house. The effort to provide housing to all within the land caused the ever rising HDB flats. These are now getting smaller in size while the names has not change. A five-room flat built in the 80's are certainly bigger than one built in the 90's. How do you get more people into one small unit.
Furthermore, the concept was that you get married and you get a flat. That caused an entire generation (and it is still the same today) to grow up learning that when you marry, you must move out to your own flat. Anything else means you are either a loser or you are a miser. How can anyone stand up to such a test.
Lately, the issue is to get the elderly employed. I wonder how many of us are ready to supervise the elderly and the outcome of it. A few years from now,we will probably not be surprised to hear a younger person telling off an elderly as it will be a common notion. After all, we would have hear plenty of such comments at our workplace. As more elderly continue working later into their years, more of them would be subjected to performance measurements, work appraisals, and would fail to measure up like any one of us. Respect of the elderly would be totally lost.
Yes, the elderly needs to continue to work to be able to ensure their financial stability but at what price? I foresee the demise of the Parent's Maintenance Billbecause someone is bound to argue that the parent should continue working so as to be less dependant upon the younger generation. After all, the Singaporegovernment is telling everyone to do so.
Unfortunately, it will not be neglect but a total lost of respect for the elderly. You will probably agree with your colleague that "that old so-and-so is useless", "that old so-and-so is really a dinosaur and does not accept your views", etc. When this is said all over Singapore, then we are is a situation where it is unique. What happens when you hear the same being said of your still working father.
Dialects - BRING IT BACK
WE should bring back Chinese dialects before it is totally forgotten.
My children were born and attended schools in Singapore. Both were bilingual (I use English with them and my wife use Mandarin with them). Unfortunately, that was the extent of their linguistic capability.
It was not until I had the opportunity to return to Malaysia for a considerable time that I had the change to consider how the children could actually benefited from learning more languages. In the time my family was in Malaysia, the children picked up Cantonese from their grandparents and Fujian from their schoolmates. On top of that, they were able to learn and use Malay in schools.
I had also intended to get the children to begin using Hakka (their mother's mother tongue). Both were able to understand basic greetings and some common Hakka words after they were taught. But we had to return to Singapore and we lost the chance for them to pick up the Hakka dialect effectively.
Now that we are back in Singapore, there has been many instances where they were able to hold conversations with various people including some tourists. They can understand their Malay schoolmates and they have more Malay friends because they can communicate easily with them.
These are some of the benefits of encouraging the young to speak more than English and understand rudimentary Mandarin - what has been going on in Singapore for the past many years. Unfortunately, it may already be too late to bring back dialects as even the older folks had learnt Mandarin to communicate with their grandchildren.
But we can get the Chinese clan groups to begin dialect classes to ensure that these tongues are not lost forever in Singapore. The clans themselves are facing numerous problems trying to recruit members in order to keep themselves alive. Perhaps, the dialect classes can be one way to bring back some life into them.
But there can also be disbenefits. The recent issues concerning the newcomers from India shows some issues must be thought through as well. Many may not realize that India has many dialects - probably more than the Chinese -and many of the language scripts are also different. Tamils are but from one province in India. Punjabbi are another. So is Malayalam. And they do not share the same written script.
Luckily all Chinese shares the same written script (let us not debate on the traditional or simplified scripts). And from the same script, we can speak in dialects. Is this not wonderful? It is time to bring back our dialects. LETS DO IT.
Charge for the plastic bags
I agree enthusiastically with those that are asking for shops to charge all users for the plastic bags that the shops current provide without any fee. I agree because it makes good sense. There are too many people throwing things all over the place without a care.
While Singapore is still in better condition than Malaysia or other places, it must arrest the situation before it gets out of hand. The government is eschewing education. I agree too. But it should also do more. If the town councils are already charging higher rates for more rubbish, it is also possible to charge for the plastic bags which will end up in the dump trucks. Education is good but already, it can be seen that education is not working out. So, while we want to dangle a carrot, we should also dangle a penalty to ensure that there is suitable punishment for an unwanted behaviour.
And the plastic bags are a worst environment culprit than many other items. A plastic bag is not easily biodegradable and it can cost many marine creatures to suffer especially the turtles.
Hot topic of the moment - RUBBISH!! Lots of it
A lot has been said on this subject by many and I concur with those that said Singapore is still a very dirty place. The only reason it looks clean is due to the many paid cleaners sweeping and picking up the litter everywhere. This has been going on for many years and now, it has worsened.
I do not wish to sound racist or condescending but I have seen many "new" residents who have little knowledge of living in a small country like Singapore going about their daily activities without thought to public cleanliness.
In the last decade, many new citizens and permanent residents came from China, India and Malaysia. These nations were developing at a lower rate than Singapore. And to many of their citizens, the lack of public hygiene is not seen as a problem. Hence there is a lack of education on littering among other issues. I have personally seen a number of these residents polluting the parks and also the playgrounds in between the public housing apartments.
It is also true there are many local Singaporeans who does not think about cleanliness and will simply discard their litter everywhere. This is a problem that education will help. But what level of education is required. Singapore has been educating the young for the past many years about the need to keep the place clean. Yet, the abundance of litter everywhere is well known.
In some things, the government is willing to pass a law when everyone is against it telling the population that the law stands as it is good for the nation e.g. the ban on smoking in open spaces like the bus stops and food stalls. Yet, on the subject of littering, the government says they prefer to use education and not legislation.
The people who litter are simply both lazy and disrespectful of others. And many of them do not consider littering is an antisocial behaviour. The antisocial behaviour should be treated as it is. If graffiti is not tolerated well, why are we tolerating litter bugs. If we are willing to throw the books at graffitis then we should do the same for littering.
Old folks home should not be in isolated places.
Singapore is one of the many nations that are aging at a rapid rate. And there are a lot of talks about the need to free up more lands to build more old age homes for the senior citizens. I think this is not correct.
The senior citizens should not be build separately away from the bustling areas. In order to keep the senior citizens sharp and not be forgotten, such homes should be built within the housing estates. If it is possible to build kindergartens and child care centres amongst the blocks of apartments, it is also equally possible to build such centres for the aged.
In some cases, what is needed is a day care facility for those aged and staying with their families. The facility should cater for these senior citizens by having the proper healthcare advisors and provide the aged with some activities.
In other cases, a facility can be built to cater for those that need to stay in and be cared for. If the government can build multi-level car parks, they can also build some low level buildings for the aged to stay in. Infact, they can convert some four-storey apartments into homes for the aged. These can be managed by various groups including the private sector.
The aged could be let out to sit around and watch the children play, interact with others in the housing estate, help keep watch on children, other apartments, etc. The main benefit is that these people are not segregated from society but are integrated into the daily life and actitvities of each housing estate. For those that are infirmed, they may get more visitors from the housing estate people especially from students who may volunteer freely because they do not have to go far to do any volunteer work.
The government should review their plans for the aged and change according to the times. It is no longer true that the aged are all infirmed and senile. Many are able to live fruitful life and they can continue to contribute to society in many ways.
Micro-chips Heist in Malaysian airport.
Malaysia is welcome to one new Malaysian record...largest heist at an airport. Intel lost close to US$13 million early this week when robbers drove into the airport cargo complex and made off with that amount in computer chips and computer motherboards. The items were scheduled to be air freight to various destinations within a few hours after arriving into the airport.
Now, that is one of the highest value products to be lost in one swoop. And this is happening in Malaysia. Why am I not surprised?
Malaysia is one of the fastest developing nation in the world. This is good as the standard of living grows. There is also a huge potential for this nation as there is an abundance of land, minerals and argiculture.
Unfortunately, that is just it. There is the potential; nothing more. At least not until the government get off their chair of wanting the cake and eat it too. The government allows mediocrity to grow and actually lowers the standard to ensure that one particular race catches up to the others within the nation. And to ensure that no other races will grow faster, there is the requirement that the one race must have so much (30%) of the economic pie and so on.
Ultimately, when you set the bar low, you get monkeys working for you. Of course, there are some diamonds and some gold nuggets that will surface. Unfortunately too many fools gold are dug up and it is unfortunate that these are the ones that will continue to hound and bay for financial support in order to make it in the world. To them, the world is Malaysia and nothing else.
If it sounds like the dark ages, do not be surprised. Where else but in Malaysia can you find politicians saying that it is perfectly alright to build buildings without permits (when it is the law) and then indicate the others has vengence on their mind when this is discovered. And that such buildings should not be penalize because everyone else is doing it.
Imagine, it is alright not to pay taxes since everyone else is doing it. It is alright to drive without a care because everyone else is doing it.
I do not see myself visiting Malaysia anytime soon. It is too dangerous. Anarchy is coming.
Singapore Christmas Decorations - nothing new
Over the weekend, I was with a group of tourists (a total of three families) and we spent the day in Orchard area. They decide to take in the sights of Christmas decorations that abound at this time of the year in Singapore. Within a short time, they were disappointed and decided to return to their hotel rooms.
Inside Ngee Ann City, there was a huge tall Christmas tree. But the tree is the same feature for Ngee Ann for the past many years. Is there nothing else that the shopping mall can offer? I tried to think how long that tree has been shown and I actually forgot when it was first put up. I remember seeing that tree some time in the late 1990's.
At Tanglin Mall, the group saw the 'snow' machine and the tree with the 12 days of Christmas decorations. Again, this is not something new. The same equipment blowing soap bubbles has been around for more than five years. And it is the same every year. It looks like more places are hopping onto this scene - I hear Faber Hill is suppose to come alive with snow as well.
We decided to head to Raffles City and found the same Christmas tree that was seen for the past seven years outside facing North Bridge Road. While some decorations have change, it is cosmetic in nature. The same tree is setup and only the trimmings are different from yester-years.
By now, the entire group felt there is nothing new in Singapore. And looking at the various products and stores in some of the shopping malls, there is nothing new as well. Many stores have not changed their layout or merchandise. Once they have bought something some time ago, there is nothing Singapore offers the group I was with.
The above is a real surprise to me. I have not been visiting Orchard Road for a while as I tend to prefer other places outside of Orchard due to both parking and ERP charges. If this is the best Singapore can do, then I am afraid we are going to lose our credibility as a shopping paradise much faster.
