Age-Friendly Places

This picture shows the steps being rather gentle making it easy to climb even for the elderly, therefore it is age-friendly and adheres to the fact that elderly may have trouble climbing rather steep slopes.

This picture shows a slope at the left side which is age-friendly and suitable for all ages, it makes the entry to school easy for all. However ironically, the only way to come from across school is the overhead bridge which may not be very user-friendly to all. people may have trouble constantly climbing the overhead bridges.

Restaurants are generally age-friendly because whether the young or old anyone can dine in together just depending on your taste preference. The elderly may opt to go for something easy to chew while 

the young may prefer something more exciting and new to eat.

Non age-friendly places

 The water theme park located at NEX is not age friendly because it is only suitable for children below 12. For young adults, teens and the elderly it is not a suitable place to go. Especially for elderly as it may be slipperly and the chances of falling are higher. therefore not a recommended place for them. 

This basketball court is more suitable for teens who are interested in sports. It is not recommended for the elderly as they may get injured through an accident. It is also not very inclusive to the adults and the elderly or even young children as it is more for teens who prefer sports and thus may be more physically fit.

Finally, the hill in Ngee Ann is definitely not age friendly as it is even a struggle for teens to climb the hill to reach areas like makan place. For the elderly, it will probably be even harder and there are few ways to avoid the hill and these are usually tedious or involve staircases. Therefore this is not age friendly.

That's all! Thanks for reading!

2 Social Enterprises chosen for grants

Back with an opinion on another article! This time it isn't about what social enterprises are doing for people but rather what is being done for social enterprises. Reading this article, i felt happy that even though the thought of social enterprises was not explored until recently, people are still very supportive of the idea and help them in any way they can. Two social enterprises were offered grants by the Singapore Centre for Social Enterprise (raiSE). raiSE itself was officially opened very recently on 27 May 2015 by President Tony Tan.

Two social enterprises, one of which helps migrant workers integrate into society, Social Development Initiative Academy (SDI), and the other is Society Staples that conducts fitness programmes connecting people with disabilites and society attained a grant of $50 000 and $25 000 respectively. raiSE will also be giving advisory services and other resources. At the event, Minister Teo Ser Luck was present and said that many public and private sector partnerships are vital in expanding the social enterprise sector which is young and still new. 

In my opinion, I think that this is a really good for many of the social enterprises in Singapore. As said by raiSE executive director Alfie Othman, "Running sustainable businesses that create social impact is challenging, even for mature enterprises. raiSE is keen to support aspiring young social entrepreneurs who want to make a difference in the community" Therefore, it is important to have such organisations to help more social enterprises come up and develop themselves. It is also a good encouragement for social entrepreneurs that their businesses would be well supported and bring forward their mission. It is good that Singapore is becoming increasingly supportive of Social Entrepreneurship. It will greatly help those who are just starting out.

Social Enterprises have a good cause and the mission to make a change in society. I think that this is greatly admirable even though there are risks involved in starting up an enterprise. Hopefully, with more social enterprises there will be a larger impact on society.I'm happy and feel encouraged that Singapore is being rather supportive. I think that co-ordination is vital in order to be able to achieve the best results. 

In conclusion, I thought that it was nice that there was an organisation to help enterprises help others instead. It creates a more inclusive society and also is heart-warming to know how much people care and are willing to do to make things work. I would like to see more of such incidents! 

References: 
Choo, F. (June 15, 2015)  '2 social enterprises picked for grants' The Straits times. Retrieved from 
http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/2-social-enterprises-picked-grants

My comments on the article "NTUC 'roving truck' for elderly making its rounds"

In summary of the article, it is part NTUC's social enterprises' Pioneer OK! Package whereby mobile trucks containing NTUC goods will be making its way around Singapore to provide services to the residents. The rationale being that not every area has an NTUC outlet, thereby bringing NTUC to them instead. This is specially targetting elderly or the pioneer generation. The Pioneer OK! package is a 15 month package with discounts and preferential treatment for the elderly according to the NTUC webpage. NTUC has also launched a new social enterprise, SilverACE senior activity centre which aims to reach 500 seniors, especially those who do not have access to social networks and little family support. Therefore, they have the best interests at heart and also want to allow those who may feel neglected or cut off from the outside world to feel more included and appreciated through these measures.

In my opinion, I think that this package might be able to benefit many people and might also be successful in portraying gratitude towards the elderly. As the elderly are one of the groups in Singapore that require constant attention and care due to ageing population.The idea is rather good and creative and something that is not done very often. It also requires a lot of effort and time to plan.They also have catered to what kind of things the elderly may want such as health supplements. Free health screening is also provided for the elderly. They have put in much effort to collaborate with others in order to make this work going down to places whereby elderly frequent, an example would be the Thye Hua Kwan Seniors' Activity Centre in Ang Mo Kio. They also have themes that vary monthly to incite interests and make it more attractive for the elderly. These could allow to elderly to also bond and meet new people as they may feel lonely and out of place. Some may even feel under appreciated in their own ways. This could be a platform for them to brighten their moods and also make them more positive.

However, I also feel that constraining showing our elderly appreciation only for 15 months is not a very feasible plan. Although it has goodnatured thoughts behind it's production. Gratitude and appreciation are not things that can be portrayed within a short amount of time alone by certain people. It has to be a combined effort, whereby even the smallest things add up with consistency. However, these are just my own personal opinions and others may have different thoughts on this matter. I also do not have an established level of expertise, therefore i may be unaware of additional efforts that are taken for the elderly in a continuous effort. Our elderly get much special privileges and discounts.I feel it is not going to be well appreciated as it came out of the blue. Also, I think that this could have been done in conjunction with SG50, thus making it less sincere or either more depending on personal view. It could be less sincere because it could be used to hype up the atmosphere along with other SG50 privileges. As, through SG50 many seniors are also benefitting. I read another article from Channel News Asia which stated that 700,000 elderly have gotten the Seniors Package goodies. The Pioneer OK! Package may also be one of the specialties about SG50. However, It could be viewed as a sincere gesture, because as it is commonly stated our pioneer generation have played a key role in building up Singapore to what it is right now.

In conclusion, I think that although the package may be able to help the people and also reach out to some people to make them feel appreciated. Others may feel as though it is not very sincere due to it's inconsistency and also it's clashing with SG50 which may lead people to think that it is just a part of promoting SG50 and efforts done by Singapore. However, a good deed is a good deed and should be credited for it's efforts and thoughts to make it happen. I think that Singapore is trying to reach out to it's people more and also leave a personal touch through these ways and we should try to appreciate them. I have mixed feelings about this article which leads me to sound rather contradictory. In short, I appreciate the help they are trying to offer the elderly, but i also question their motives and fail to understand fully understand their rationale. 

References:

Anon. (May 2015) " More than 700,000 to get SG50 Seniors Package goodies" Channel News Asia Retrieved from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/more-than-700-000-to-get/1864984.html

Anon. (April 2015) "NTUC 'roving truck' for elderly making its rounds" Channel News Asia  Retrieved from
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ntuc-roving-truck-for/1801480.html

Justice or Equality?

When reading the article, I felt as though it was rather unfair as the woman featured was obviously having a tough time with two children to feed and no one to help her. Although the law has to be fair with everyone where everyone has to be treated equally, I feel that even though the equality criteria was met, the justice criteria was not. They should have taken her situation under consideration before serving out the punishment. Knowing that she was the only adult figure for her two children, they still had to put her in jail for five days resulting in a distant relative having to fly in to take care of her children. She even had to lie to her young daughter about the reasons for her absence as they were not mature enough to fully understand the situation.

However, my thoughts also strayed to the fact that Ms Carniago was in the wrong regardless of situation. As they say ‘prevention is better than cure’ and I thought about why she did not make the necessary arrangements to be able to get a proper job. If she had, she wouldn’t have been in this situation. Then I realised that as a mother of two who does not have anyone to depend on to take care of her kids, she needs to stay home. Therefore, it was not that she intentionally wanted to break the law, but rather she had little option. She needed the income in order to sustain her family and also be physically there to take care of her young children. These make her sentencing sound all the more unreasonable and also raises awareness to the tough situations that some are going through to make ends meet. Even though she was already working hard, this must have come in as an additional blow to her. 

I admired Ms Carniago as she came off as very strong and independent as she did not want to depend on the government alone. Although, she was in a tough scenario, with her husband in jail and also having to bring up two young children single-handedly. She also potrayed herself with a positive attitude. She was very strong minded to want to start her own business in order to sustain herself. We are also able to understand the extent of her situation in which she states “I know I did wrong... I can't run away from it. But I just want all this to be over so I can find work again and stop depending on handouts.” (Carniago, 2015, para.29) She demonstrates her strong personality here and also that she really needs the money enough to quickly get back to work. Also, it also hints at a social stigma of receiving government funds.

I think that Ms Carniago can get a job at a social enterprise that helps single mothers. An example is ChaCha cottage whereby mothers can work from home to make decorative, scented candles and beauty soap. This is useful and relevant to Ms Carniago as she used to trade in perfume and bedsheets and she also needs to stay home in order to take care of her children. Ms Carniago also is very skilled with her hands as her curry puff business were successful and also recognised. Therefore, she can use her talents to good use through this way and also obtain an income.

In conclusion, I think that the government should take the peoples’ personal problems into consideration and act accordingly. They should seek other methods to serve out the punishment also allow space for leniency. Instead, they should guide her to the correct path as she committed crime not out of choice but because her situation forced her into it. I hope that more of such situations could be looked into case by case. Singapore although being a rather wealthy country should also be able to empathize with people.