DISCRIMINATION DIVIDES

Think Twice says "It's a Long Journey between Human Being - and Being Human."

A common sight greeting onlookers whilst in Singapore are Seniors cleaning - collecting - polishing shoes...... Granted that their majority are poorly educated, we cannot help but form an opinion.

... arising from observation - rather than from argument. 

 

Whilst 40% of the cleaning workforce are foreigners Seniors fill up the remaining 60%.  Wontonly ... a thin line of discrimination emerges.

As we aged our 'individualistics' become the more apparent.  Our capacity to adjust becomes the more difficult.  Impairments set in - due to the attrition of the years. The emotional impact suffers the most.  

 

Gary R. Collins Ph.D - a psychologist in clinical psychology and lecturer at Trinity Evangelical School.. Texas pin points that the loss of self esteem is the worst thing about aging -

# Everything around .. is letting Seniors know that they are not terribly important anymore.... and that the elderly are too old to make decisions - do useful work

- create new things.... Many end up feeling useless - unimportant.

'PASTORAL CARE' , edited by Richard Spann... reported that Longevity Centres - like those in New Yoirk City, a research think tank on aging issues - reported that seniors are being discriminated against. Many reported that they have been ignored - slighted - experienced impatience and condescension......

 

(Photo 1 - Homeless Seniors end up Discarded .. in a crypt in England...)

 

Interpreter's Bible Commentary explicitly cautions against this.... Israel culture and Old Testament theology directed the adult citizen to care for one's parents (Exo. 20:12).  

 

Parents are not to be discarded...to be eaten by beasts or to die of exposure - as in some primitive heathen societies. The Torah specifically teaches Family Solidarity, viz. the necessity to protect aging parents(Exo. 21:15)

Death is the punishment for children(above 16) who strikes and curses their parents...Babylonian society would cut off the hand that struck a parent - Code of Hummurabi 195.

Modernity ... interprets belittlement as a substitute for cursing....as evidenced with the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers ......at the New Plymouth Colony in 1670.

Human Progress is very slow from the time of Moses to that of the Pilgrim Fathers....

Come .. 20th century .. we see today the shifting of Parent Care Responsibility .. to State and Society! How .. Sad!  We forget that Blood is thicker than Water! Local churches and the communities should do something positive about this.   But be aware... In my morning walks ... I encounter mini buses ferrying some aged to some centres. They don't look happy....!

(Photo 2 - Eldedrly Britons reject going to old-age daycares......) 

 

 

 

INVOLVE ... the SENIORS

Invite them to share their talents - and experiences .... I turned my hobbies into a self-employed business

(Photo 3 - Edwin's Garden & Landscape Handyman ... Teaching Floral Creation...)

 

Being hobbies ... I enjoyed doing them - and I was proud for Jobs Well Done.. - the PLUS Factors: No bosses pushing me down - and around.. I earned a steady-rising income for over 20 years....

I'm now 84. I did not choose to retire... Falls from a work forced me into retirement - at GOD'S HAVEN - my Retirement Home at Rinting Heights, Johor Bahru x 15 years.

(Photo 3 - from HOBBIES to SELF EMPLOYMENT Photo 4 - G O D'S H A V E N @ Rinting Heights).

I still pursue those hobbies .. I gladly will give you a Helping Hand. Just email or call me at 67698890.. 

 

Several of my ex-employees and past students are today - self employed and happy.

We do not grow old by merely living a number of years. "We aged only when we desert our Ideals and Goals.. There is in every being's heart the love of wonder - and there's always the undaunted challenge of events" - so said General Douglas MacArthur.

Hebrew History began with GOD inviting aged Abraham to be the progenitor of the Hebrews (Genesis 11-25) 

 

And GOD involves Moses, in his aged years, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt ... and later to be the law giver... 

 

Both these Seniors were tasked with positions of authority.  Decline in physical strength is now compensated by an increase in wisdom (I Peter 5:5) God values the older peoples in Israel's History. 

 

Experience counts. Old minds are not slower; they just have much more to recall - because they know so much more - so reported TODAY dated 21st January 2014.

At 84 I am blogging.. Perchance some publishers might find some articles interesting - and worthy...

PAIN SUFFERS .... LONG

The late Nelson Mandela suffered much and long. C.S. Lewis, the Problem of Pain.....amplifies "God is not deaf nor blind to our Pain"

 

He whispers in our pleasures; speaks in our conscience; and shouts in our pain; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."   Pain offers Nelson Mandela access to many more people. Passed on at aged 95 - he fought against apartheid ... suffered shame and imprisonment for 227 long and painful years.

Refusing to be embittered against his white enemies - who are often blurred by prejudices in politics, Nelson Mandela 'imparted' his pain/suffering to his fellow black peoples.  They stood by him.  That inspired him on. He spent 70 long years - fighting for freedom and equality. And he changed modern man's distorted minds - and thinking. He remained assertive all along. God called him back on 7th December 2013. 

 

(Photo 5 - Great and humble gather tp honour Mandela)

"There is no passion to be found playing small.... Poverty is not an accident; it is man-made; and can be removed by the actions of human being." was his battle cry.

His prime purpose was not to defeat the white man... Philip Yancey sums it up fittingly "to awaken the sense of shame against his oppressors." 

 

 

Nelson Mandela put right where/what went wrong... William Barclay Commentary compares his actions to Jesus' 7th Beautitude ..He believed .. and practised peacemaking. 

 

And by making peace, he stood tall - and made his enemies lood small. Together with Bishop Desmond Tutu they highlighted the injustices of the whites against the blacks... Their expertise - put together chasnged their country

.... brought Justice to the afflicted and needy(Psa. 82:3) - transforming bad into good and beinging good out of evil.

Instead of stooping down to their level - hitting back .. Nelson Mandela stood tall "With Malice toward None but Charity to All"   He did not hit back. Hitting back is assault - NOT leadership......He led a pariah nation out of their miseries. 

 

The Lone Ranger lives on - putting right above wrongs....

Truly indeed Nelson Mandela was "a giant amongst men."

Pastor Edwin Khoo

We have many thinkers .... but they do not know.