PRC living in Singapore: Seeing the sad elderly of Singapore breaks my heart

[Article first appeared on www.TREmeritus.com]

Heart-aching plight of Singapore’s elderly

In China, you rarely see white-haired elderly wearing service crew uniforms busy ploughing away in restaurants and hotels. Incredulously in Singapore, passionate elderly crews are seen everywhere in service establishments like, McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurants and hawker centres, and the many elderly taxi drivers on the road. Very few of them are youngsters. Nonetheless, these elderly service crews are just as enthusiastic in serving the customers as their much younger counterparts in China. The first few experiences, it was a little uncomfortable to be served by the Singaporean old folks, as compared to our elderly, their life have been just too tough.

Yesterday we had dinner at a hawker centre, after finishing our meals an elderly with a hunchback came by to clear our used cutleries. Upon seeing her, it was heart wrenching, and spontaneously we decided to clear the table on our own. We then had a chat with the elderly cleaner, who told us that fortunately there were lesser patrons for the day as compared to the day before whereby she did not have a break for several hours due to the crowd. Whilst she was wiping the table, her hands were trembling, and continued to share with us that she has no choice but to work at this age, as with no pension, and her grown up sons being away for work hardly bring home much needed cash for her yearly. She has to continue working, otherwise she will have no money to see the doctor if she falls sick. Further probing revealed that she is 81 yrs old, we are very sad to hear so. Back in China as long as you paid social security there will be monthly pension for the elderly to retire, likewise in Hong Kong, there is a similar pension scheme for the elderly. When one reached a ripe old age, it is pathetic if you can’t lead a leisure life and has to continue to slog for money, truly hard and tough life.

It is understood that Singapore has been ranked in the world’s top ten in terms of severity of aging population, ranked second in Asia after Japan. “Singapore where most of them are Chinese, some are not rich, but still faced the high living costs. Young people take on the more technical jobs with higher wages, and are generally reluctant to work as cleaners or waiters/waitresses. With an aging population, these jobs are left for the elderly.”