The Danger

Now that National Day and the jazz of the 60^th birthday bash is over, I thought I’d finally get on to talk about a topic, I’ve become a little obsessed with – namely the topic of growing old, sick, weak and broke in Singapore, a city better known for its glamorous image of being a superpowered financial centre of everything glitzy and glamorous.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m rational enough to realise that in many ways, Singapore measures up pretty darn well compared to most places on the globe. I used to be married to a Vietnamese girl who saw Singapore as heaven on earth. Her point being “People in Vietnam don’t have much to eat.” It’s not just the Vietnamese. Thais, Cambodians and so on, who think Singapore is wonderful. These days, I have Europeans and Americans telling me that I have plenty to be grateful for. I think of an American navy body in Geylang (our red-light district) telling me “If you think this is a bad area, come to America and I’ll show you bad.”

However, I don’t live elsewhere. I live here. I see the daily reality and now that I am officially past 50, the danger of being old, sick, weak and broke is a scary reality in a place that’s obsessed with youth, health and wealth often at the expense of the old, sick, weak and broke. Just go into any fast-food joint, or just look at the cleaning staff at any given corner hawker centre or dare I say, in our “envy of the world” airport, and you’ll notice one thing – they’re all old and frail.

There was a time when our politicians could not stop talking about “Asian Values.” Our internationally revered founding father, the late Lee Kuan Yew, would point out that in “Asian Values” societies, people supposedly revere their aged. Unfortunately, the late Mr. Lee seemed selective in what he meant about respecting and revering the elderly. If you’ve seen the multitude of old folks crushing cans and carrying heavy loads, you’ll realise that the only elderly person that got any form of respect in our “Asian Values” society, was Mr. Lee.

I guess, you could say I’m doing well enough. I used to have a property to my name. I’ve been steadily employed for over a decade in a professional firm. I am officially a director, which means I have some status.

Yet, after a health scare, the reality has hit. I’m only lucky because I’m relatively health and in steady employment – for now. Should I get sick or should I lose my job, that’s pretty much it for me. Nobody employs 50-year-olds in corporate Singapore. Nobody wants sick people.

So, I thought I’d start a separate blog to talk about being old, weak, sick and broke and how to survive being old, weak, sick and broke. I’m hopping to share experiences and hopping people who read my thoughts on the topic will share their experiences. Hopefully this blog can be part of a community that shares ideas on problems that can happen to any of us. It shouldn’t be restricted to Singapore. I believe these are problems that are universal. Let the conversation begin