SINGAPORE - I keep that $2 note in my wallet's coin compartment. This way, I'll not spend it by accident.
Sure, the amount is small change by today's standards. Yet, this $2 note holds special meaning for me.
It was earned through sweat, and very nearly tears, and it reminds me of how, for some people, money is earned with much difficulty.
Toiling in the sun, picking up things that people discard, that is how they make a living.
On Thursday afternoon, I joined their ranks briefly at Serangoon Road, in search of cardboard boxes to be sold to recyclers. I wanted to find out if it is possible to earn a living this way.
My hunt began after seeing an advertisement on Facebook. One recycler was willing to pay 10 cents for 1kg of used cardboard cartons. There must be an error because the payout is too little, I thought.
But intrigued, I decided to give it a go.
A daily reality
At Veerasamy Road and Clive Street off Serangoon Road, 9 to 10 cents per kg is the daily reality for some senior citizens who form the lines at the two cardboard collection points.
They eagerly wait for the weighing scales to show a favourable weight.
"Gor chap kilo (50kg in Hokkien)... gor kor ($5)," Mr Lock Lee Jin, 50, who mans the collection point at Veerasamy Road, shouts to sweaty uncle Tan Kim Seng, 80.
It is demoralising to see others, who carry smaller hauls, being paid in coins. One elderly woman left with $1.50 after turning in 15kg of cardboard."
Good to read the reporter doing this for a day IF only to generate MORE publicity and alerting 1st world Singapore that some of its citizens are far from being one of the 'richest per capital income or was it wealth' nation members!
Lessons for me are:
1. it is FREE money as the cardboards are given away free most of the time. In any case if the owners want to charge the 'free lance' collectors, they would not or could not pay anyway;
2. it is HARD work for sure. It will be good to KNOW and document HOW MANY of these 'free lance' collectors and what are their age profile. If they are over 70 years old, perhaps the government can take care of them!;
3. in addition, some students or academicians can research into WHY in a 1st world vibrant global nation, we have elderly who need to make, or eke out, a living in this manner.
Sure, the amount is small change by today's standards. Yet, this $2 note holds special meaning for me.
It was earned through sweat, and very nearly tears, and it reminds me of how, for some people, money is earned with much difficulty.
Toiling in the sun, picking up things that people discard, that is how they make a living.
On Thursday afternoon, I joined their ranks briefly at Serangoon Road, in search of cardboard boxes to be sold to recyclers. I wanted to find out if it is possible to earn a living this way.
My hunt began after seeing an advertisement on Facebook. One recycler was willing to pay 10 cents for 1kg of used cardboard cartons. There must be an error because the payout is too little, I thought.
But intrigued, I decided to give it a go.
A daily reality
At Veerasamy Road and Clive Street off Serangoon Road, 9 to 10 cents per kg is the daily reality for some senior citizens who form the lines at the two cardboard collection points.
They eagerly wait for the weighing scales to show a favourable weight.
"Gor chap kilo (50kg in Hokkien)... gor kor ($5)," Mr Lock Lee Jin, 50, who mans the collection point at Veerasamy Road, shouts to sweaty uncle Tan Kim Seng, 80.
It is demoralising to see others, who carry smaller hauls, being paid in coins. One elderly woman left with $1.50 after turning in 15kg of cardboard."
Good to read the reporter doing this for a day IF only to generate MORE publicity and alerting 1st world Singapore that some of its citizens are far from being one of the 'richest per capital income or was it wealth' nation members!
Lessons for me are:
1. it is FREE money as the cardboards are given away free most of the time. In any case if the owners want to charge the 'free lance' collectors, they would not or could not pay anyway;
2. it is HARD work for sure. It will be good to KNOW and document HOW MANY of these 'free lance' collectors and what are their age profile. If they are over 70 years old, perhaps the government can take care of them!;
3. in addition, some students or academicians can research into WHY in a 1st world vibrant global nation, we have elderly who need to make, or eke out, a living in this manner.
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