A Nation’s Birthday And My Disenchantment.
Two momentous events – the Beijing Olympics and our nation’s 43rd birthday – occurred over the weekend. As usual, our mainstream media were filled with feel-good articles and especially for Singapore’s 43rd birthday, patriotic write-ups extolling the many remarkable achievements of our nation since Independence.
But somehow or rather, I found it difficult to join in the celebrations. In fact, the overriding emotion in me is one of pessimism and bewilderment. Perhaps, it is only me but with record inflation and the stratospheric cost of living in Singapore, especially for food, utilities and transport, I am definitely struggling to put food on the table for my two kids and provide them with a decent standard of living on my meagre income. There is actually nothing much to celebrate about on our nation’s 43rd birthday, not for me anyway. Besides, I spent the day toiling away for the miserly forty bucks that is so needed to survive.
I sometimes wonder why we spent such an enormous amount of money putting up a grand show celebrating our past achievements – and we do that every year – during our National Day, money that could be better spend on helping the poor and the increasing number of people struggling to cope with the ever-rising costs of living. How would that one day of spirited celebrations changed or lift up the lives of the many poor and disadvantaged that are increasingly been seen in our society?
On a macro level, Singapore is indeed a remarkable economic miracle and supposedly one of the richest nation in the world. Yet, on closer inspection, when one lifts up the carpet, so to speak, you get to see a different picture from that painted by our leaders.
At the crack of dawn at 5.30am when I go to work, one get to see many of the elderly behaving like the proverbial early bird getting the worm – scavenging at dump sites and rubbish bins for cartons, drink cans and anything that can be sold for cash. You get to see people rummaging through the rubbish bins of the nearby Sheng Song supermarket for any thrown-away vegetables and fruits that are still edible. And by my observations, their numbers are increasing over the years in the area that I reside.
You get to read about the increasing number of people, employed or otherwise, turning to temples and charity organisations for free food to fill their stomachs. At MRT stations, foodcourts and coffee-shops, you get to see an increasing number of the elderly toiling as cleaners and plate collectors, tolerating petty humiliations on a daily basis, all for that miserly $650 to $750 monthly pay cheque so needed for their survival.
You get to hear about your neighbours’ utilities being cut off due to non-payment of outstanding arrears when there was hardly any such instances before and host their children for the evening in your house – like what I did recently – so that they can do their homework. You also noticed increasing occurances of strange knocking on doors at odd hours of the day, likely the result of debt collectors and the serving of legal summons for non-payment of this or that fees.
At the factory where I worked, you get to see the elderly struggling to cope with the physical demands of their menial tasks, clearly in the wrong job yet not complaining because the meagre wage that they earn is their only means of survival.
And above all else, if you look close enough – from their downcast eyes, expressionless faces and the hunched shoulders – you will detect a common look on the faces of the poor and elderly : a look of resignation. Resigned to their fate and a life of misery, humiliation and toil till their deaths.
Scenes like these have become a regular part of our landscape and differ very much from the beautiful and optimistic picture painted by our leaders and the mainstream media. In fact, I am downright pessimistic about the future and am especially worried for my children’s, and unless our highly-paid leaders whole-heartedly tackle the woes of the poor and drastically reduce the cost of living in Singapore, it hardly puts me in the mood to celebrate anything, Singapore’s birthday notwithstanding.
*Related articles :
- Whose Future Is “Shining” ? by The Online Citizen
- Poverty Looms In The Isle Of Riches by The Star
- The Relentless Rising Cost of Living by The Online Citizen
- Singapore’s Poor Turn To Temples To Fill Their Stomachs – Reuters
Very heart felt thoughts you have. My thoughts are life are going to be worst for our next generation. And having attended the NDP parade, a strange thought loom in my head, why all the extravagance, etc. Too much fan fare, weeks leading to the NDP, we see fireworks week after week..total waste of taxpayers’ money. My thought was, why there’s no cost cutting for NDP? Anyway, it is very saddening to see so many foreigners in our midst now, taking away jobs from Singapore…
Frankly, singapore is going to the dumps if nothing is done to stem the rot. Anyway, I still proud to be a Singaporean but not proud of how the country is being run now.
Martyn See did a touching video of what you wrote about – the elderly scavenging.
By the way, Martyn is still waiting for the authorities to approve his application to screen the film to the public.
Very well written and emotionally moving. Unfortunately the society we live is so caught up in our daily activities we tend to not see past our own lives. It takes effort to focus on a people whose existance we are not even aware of most of the time. When we do become aware of you, if there is something disturbing the easy thing to do is to turn away.”What can I do? I’m just one person.” I have heard that statement many times when conversation goes to to state of the world or even the country we live in. One day we will all have to accept that we are all part of a huge oneness, that the Earth is really just an atom in the universe and all the Planets and moons are protons and neutrons and we are either the support or the infection….
Well, tell that to the 66.6% who gave them a mandate. I feel your pain, sir. I’m not mocking you. I feel sorry for those elderly generations.
I’m not sure where everything went wrong, but there definitely has been a disconnect over the years.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the link. I have actually watched that video by Martyn sometime back and it gives a gut-wrenching image of the underbelly of Singapore society. Let’s hope it will be approve by the authorities for public viewing as much good will come out of it.
Regards.
Ed/Dan/Kaffein,
The feeling that “something is very wrong” in our society would probably be a common thought in most Singaporeans mind. My take is that our leaders have over-emphasized the economic aspects of governing our nation, treating each individual as economic digits and forgetting that the foremost duty of the government of the day is actually to look after the welfare of its citizens which includes improving the quality of life, among many other things.
Thanks for popping by and the kind comments.
Regards.
Thanks for the post.. I can empathise with your feelings. The dominant party only beleives in the Ends Justifies the Means.
Just watching the Olympic squad marching, I felt totally disconnected with them. I don’t know them and I am sure they don’t know who Singaporeans really are.
I think we can rant all we want, especially behind a computer. Thing is, why aren’t we (as in we the S’poreans) doing anything about it? Walk the talk, get off our butts, make our votes count, mobilise the RC to do something, leave a trail in charities, do volunteer work etc. In other words, contribute! However, I must say like most S’poreans, I am mostly too busy, too selfish, too threatened by society’s competition (it’s everyman for himself)….Man, something is wrong with us!
Hi Universal,
While not exactly blazing a trail in charities, I do volunteer at the one of the homes for elderly at my neighbourhood over the weekends. And I realised that there are actually quite a substantial number of people who, without much fanfare, care enough for the disadvantaged to do something for them.
But it has always makes me wonder how much of a difference we can make to change society when our culture emphasizes so much on the pursuit and creation of wealth. And by extension, why should average citizens bear the burden of trying to correct the so many social ills around us when it is actually our leaders, with their obsession with the creation of wealth above all else, who have contributed to the cold Singapore society?
But you right abt getting off our butts and contributing and I believe ranting (if you want to called it so) and writing are ways of contributing as it does creates awareness of social issues in Singapore.
Thks for popping by.
Regards.