It’s officially Christmas Eve, and I’ve already started having to attend the various celebrations that one has to go to as part of the corporate scene. Company lunch and Middle Eastern restaurant were excellent, and I left the place rolling — so much for the year’s efforts to look that bit slimmer.
I love Christmas, or at least I love the good food and opportunities to drink. If I were in Europe, the highlight would be the family goose, which my mother has turned into an art form (or as the Evil Young Woman said when I brought her back for Christmas – “Oh Grandma cooks good”). I’m not big on presents, but I guess that comes from the fact that I’ve been into shopping — never understood the thrill of owning things.
However, as much as I love Christmas revelry, I’ve always found it strange that we would celebrate the birth of Jesus by endless consumerism. The man, who we call Jesus Christ, was from a family so poor that he had to be born down in a manger with the animals. I guess in modern terms, he had to be born in a petrol station because there was simply nowhere else for him to be.
If you read all four gospels, you will notice that Jesus preferred the title “Son of Man” as opposed to “Son of God,” and he hung out with social outcasts (tax collectors and prostitutes.) His teachings cheered on the lowest of the low, and he admonished those in power. Jesus of the gospels wasn’t exactly a capitalist by traditional definitions, let alone a member of the Tucker Carlson fan club that is the modern American Republican Party.
So, if you look at whom the gospels tell us Jesus is, it goes without saying that celebrating his birth with endless consumerism shouldn’t be the way to go (not that I’m against good food for the season). Instead of trying to benefit retailers, our Christmas celebration should be more in line with that of Mr Gilbert Goh, one of Singapore’s better-known activists, is doing:
I guess you could call Mr Goh a “Social Welfare Entrepreneur,” who spends his time serving an ignored market — only in this case he’s giving food to those who are unable to help themselves rather than selling a product or service.
Whilst there is nothing to suggest that Mr Goh is doing this in the name of any particular faith, he is doing what the early Christians used to do — go out, heal the sick and feed the hungry free of charge.
One would imagine that Mr Goh would be the type of person that the rich, famous and powerful would want to be seen with as part of their efforts to burnish their credentials with the people by being around a guy who is doing what he can to ensure the vulnerable have things a little better.
However, this being Singapore, Mr Goh is considered something of a troublemaker by Singapore’s elite. I thank Thambi P****k (aka Singapore’s Young Muslim Politician who believes in feasting on pork on a Ramadan Day), for explaining it most clearly “Why you want to do these things — there’s the government and grassroots?”
Well, whilst I am not “Anti-Ruling Party” (though I wish I really had the millions some of my fans on TREmeritus imagine I’m being paid to write ruling party propaganda), per se, Mr Goh is providing a necessary service to market that is tragically only going to increase — namely a growing army of dispossessed old folks.
Let’s state the obvious, these are not “welfare louts” or “druggies” that make the number of destitute in the Western world. They are not the tramps who lived on the same street as me in London’s Soho. If anything, these were the guys who made Singapore what it is.
They didn’t have much, but they slogged hard and sent their kids to school. As a rule of thumb, these guys don’t beg or ask for spare change. They try to sell you tissue paper at the hawker centre, or they rummage through the dustbins looking for cans that they can sell to a recycling agent. You’ll see them trying to flatten drink cans with a rock, even if they barely have the strength to lift the rock.
Then, as what was part of my lunch conversation, a good portion of them end up getting screwed by the kids they devoted their lives to. It’s a classic case of the kid and his family see that the old man or old lady has a property that can be turned into cash (this being the land of very expensive property) and before you know it, the old person is conned into moving in with the kid and his or her property is sold.
Then somewhere down the line, there is a fall-out with the child or the in-law, and before you know it, grandpa or grandma gets turfed out.
Then, as another client of mine explained to me, there are government programs to assist the poor. However, many don’t know how to get them and need assistance – let’s not forget that we are talking about a generation that had it imprinted on its DNA that seeking assistance was the greatest act of shame.
Something needs to be done, and when you consider the fact that Singapore is officially one of the richest nations in the world: GDP per Capita
We have the money, and we have the ability to look after our vulnerable elderly. We have bragged that we are a wonderful “Asian Values” society that respects its elders, yet at the same time, we are content to help them go through the trash to look for a means of buying a cup of coffee. How can this be right from a moral standpoint?
In a strange way, solving this issue would probably help solve a few others. Let’s put it this way, every time one sees a homeless elderly person, one is bound to get the idea that ending up like that is a reality.
Would you give your all to contribute to a place that will toss you aside once you are old and vulnerable, or would you take what you can and then get out to look for more welcoming pastures the moment it looks like you won’t be able to pee straight?
If we are to learn anything this Christmas, it should be the fact that looking after the vulnerable is not an airy-fairy concept created by politicians, but a practical and essential element of building a resilient nation that people want to contribute to.
A version of this article first appeared at beautifullyincoherent.blogspot.com