Lots more can be done to help older folk age with dignity, says expert. Dr Alexandre Kalache was passing comment on how an elderly resident of Nightingale Nursing Home was tossed to her bed by two staff members like coolies heaving a sack of rice onto a bumboat.
At Pungol Plaza four elderly women fell down an escalator when the handrail of the escalator stopped suddenly. One of the mall management officers was quick to absolve themselves of culpability by saying the accident happened because the old ladies become giddy. Madam Hoh Peck Tan, 72, may be senior in years, but she's definitely in full control of her mental faculties, "How is possible that all four of us suffer from giddiness a the same time?" Having an escalator handrail freeze while the steps are moving is like a carpet being yanked away while you are standing on it.
A 68-year-old woman was bundled into a police car and sequestered in the foul lock-up while her relatives, ages 70, 55, 60 and 62, scrummaged to make the bail of $2,000. She was alleged to have shop-lifted a $1.45 packet of dou miao (pea shoots). "Why would I steal $1.45 worth of vegetables? I paid for the other groceries," asked Ms Tan.
The Prime Supermarket employee must really feel rotten to the core, when he tried to distance himself by quoting company policy, "We're not accusing her of anything, but we've referred her case to the police." Which makes it odd for the police to rush down promptly to site within 20 minutes, when there was no accusation of a crime committed. On private premises, owned by a private company, no less. Is dou miao more dangerous than an unexploded bomb? And couldn't all the trigger happy parties have given the little old lady the benefit of the doubt, since short term memory is often a liability with senior citizens? For those boycotting The New Paper, please add Prime to your list.
Mercifully, some entities do spare a thought for the older folks. NTUC Fairprice provides a 2 percent discount for those over 60 years, applicable on Tuesdays only. Their generosity should make you weep.
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Reflects the ivory tower, tachi leadership despite the heavy daily rhetoric.
ReplyDelete"At Pungol Plaza four elderly women fell down an escalator when the handrail of the escalator stopped suddenly...Having an escalator handrail freeze while the steps are moving is like a carpet being yanked away while you are standing on it."
ReplyDeleteThis was exactly what happened to my 70+ mother in a prominent Orchard Rd mall a few days ago.
She was on the escalator with my father (the 2 old folks had gone shopping by themselves) when the handrail suddenly stopped, causing her to stumble, fall and hit the back of her head on the steps which immediately developed a huge bump.
Besides the seemingly lack of SOP for such an incident, the show of care and concern for my mom was also disappointly lacking.
After my mom had an x-ray done (it wasn't an SOP procedure apparently; my mom had to tell the mall officers she wanted to go to a hospital for one), no one called to enquire about my mom's well-being or how to get reimbursement for her medical expenses. It was only a few days later when I called and demanded to speak to a manager that their PR Manager apologized, but he also added that we may not be able to claim 100% of our expenses incurred as it depends on their insurer.
So much for empathy!
Dignity? They are only concerned with a minimal wage of $xxmillion for MPs (to quote Dr Wee) so that their dignity matches their salary size. You think they care for our old aged men/women? They pay a miserable 2.5% in CPF, yet with inflation running as high as >4.5% , their minimal sum kept being raised to $131K eventually $150k, and the ever moving goalpost of DDD at 65y/o, how the hell do they expect people to have enough to retire, not only gracefully but also with dignity?
ReplyDeleteThey want self-sufficiency but are giving you the crutches to hang onto them at old age so that they can shuttle you around in their buses every 4 yrs to buy you free food to get your free votes! Gratitude = Servitude that's their motto.
If Singaporeans don't wake up and hold their government accountable for a better return on their CPF, they're voting for a sleeping President and ex-GIC head who manages our reserves with consistently >8% or more returns, pocketing the difference and not giving it back to your account.
SG is not a place for retirement. When your children have to look after you, why would they have of more of their own children? Only the stars & deep pockets of PAP/MIW are aligned, while others retirement are ruined.
To know how much to give, see how the elders are treated.
ReplyDeleteThe title of your blog article should come with a caveat, it cannot be true for some of our privileged elders.
ReplyDeleteSomehow or other we are still not told why we need to pay an elderly mentor more than S$3M+ to mentor our govt leaders into becoming better leaders only to end up having the mentored one apologising to us for their past mistakes. Unlike his other hard truths, it still remains to be seen whether the hard truth of his current S$3M+ salary will ever be revealed.
What happened exactly to all the mentoring that we paid for, considering that we were even forewarned to repent for the consequences of votiing for the opposition ?
How can the welfare of our elderly folks contrast so differently between the privileged and under-privileged ones ? Are we being hookwinked & shortchanged ?
Tattler,
ReplyDeleteon the contrary, LKY and Nathan will proclaim SinCity is the best country on the planet for old men, women...i.e for themselves and their spouse.
easy-does-it $3M++ for LKY just to be a fortune teller cum mentor, does not matter if his forecasts are mostly wrong and those he mentor continue to be duds.
or in the case of Nathan, $4M+ just to be the Istana security guard, does not matter if he is the oldest security guard on the planet as well as being clueless what he is suppose to guard. LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37wkX2gklzo&feature=player_embedded
ReplyDeleteVery Sad. Singapore is full of SINs these days. Soon all the old men will be prostituting injoo chiat with those women trafficked into here for sex trades, either that, they will be gambling away at casinos or out-of-sea gambling dens. Then the govt will say : i told you so right..cannot give you one lumpsum of money because you will squander away. just watch!
Another embarrassing incident for our policemen.
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/showthread.php?t=3298992
ReplyDeleteWhat's the point of reporting the news on MSM aka STonline, then choose to censor the message. Daft..only goes to demonstrate, they want to read/hear the "good" things only..but have no guts when people tell the alternatives..so readers, take your news paper with 50% of salt. Most are just propaganda.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13746908
ReplyDeleteSingaporeans increased wealth has not given them access to healthcare, as evidenced from above. See income viz-a-viz healthcare per 1000 people. Horrendous! They really don't care about our aged after fooling them over 4 decades of votes and civic rights. It's all medical tourism now and a known fact that SG spent the lowest per healthcare cost in the region. Hardly a first world nation..tsk
It is indeed a Country Of Sin.
ReplyDeleteWhy are people been handcuffed when they did not commit violent crime and for violating petty regulatory offences. Worse are those who are half dead when they failed to succeed in their suicide attempts, non-payment of fines and of course weak and feeble old folks.
Btw, dignity in Sin is not meant for any ordinary human, it is meant for the wealth and power the human owns.
And to me, how Sinful one is, is how much excess one owns or wants, the more greedy the person is the more sinful he/she is.
Staying in Sin, to be sinful seems normal.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/227093_10150594902695096_736470095_19010586_1778162_n.jpg
ReplyDeleteMy take is, it has less to do with being old than being poor. If the senior citizens is a rich towkay, I'm sure they will be treated like VIPs and the authorities are more forgiving of their misdemeanor. Such is life.
ReplyDeleteI think PAP likes the old Singaporeans and the old Singaporeans love the Government. Many aged Singaporeans wear white pants(long) and red t-shirts in the morning and frequently travel around Singapore in hired buses to attend community or Members Of Parliament Events.
ReplyDelete