Old Folks Abandoned, seen in bus stops.
Source: here.
Purpose: A comment in a blog whereby the author have seen elderly folks lying at bus stops at night with no place to go and feels affected by the type of society we live in with no compassion for the elderly.
As I woke up for my ride this morning, it never occur to me that I’ll be sitting here now writing this. Thoughts are running through my head but I just can’t seem to be able to put structure them into the words and express them as I would like to but here goes.
Nothing beats a morning ride.
As I zipped through the quiet neighbourhood, with the sound of the wind rushing by my ears, the feeling of the cool morning breeze running through my hair directed through the air vents in the helmet makes me feel fresh even though I’m sweating like a pig and my muscles are screaming for me to stop from all the effort.
One thing I can’t help but notice is the number of old folks that are sleeping at the bus stops. What are they doing sleeping here at this ungodly hour? I can definitely say that they are not waiting for buses as there aren’t any service that runs at 4am in the morning. Then it dawned upon me. They’re homeless.
I’ve heard and read about the homeless in Singapore, there was even a documentary made to highlight this situation. Abandoned by their children or having no children as they’ve worked pass their prime to settle down, they’ve no one to support them as they grow old and their savings dwindled from the increasing cost of living. The situation is more common than anyone of us would like to admit but the morning quietness of the neighbourhood with no other distractions around you does punctuate this rather strongly.
It got me thinking. As society progresses, and as we grow old and slow down due to our age and being unable to catch up with the progresses as we are able to do so now, will we be eventually left behind to our own devices to be forgotten by everyone else? Will our savings hold out?
Today as the standard of living is rising rapidly, we find it more and more difficult to make ends meet these days, what I’ve seen this morning does trigger a sense of fear and hopelessness about the future.
Granted that we have more access to information and knowledge to help lower the chances of our fate ending as such, there is no guarantee as to what will happen in the future. And what about these folks who’ve not had such information in the past? Are we to just forget them and hope that they will just eventually go away? And even if we are willing to help them, are we able to?
As I spin around my neighbourhood, the peace, quiet and joy of the ride was overshadowed by a sense of fear and uncertainty as I can’t help but wonder if this is the bleak future that we’re all riding into.Labels: comment in a blog
