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Time For LTA to Protect CardBoards Collectors Aunties And Uncles
- Thread starter CoffeeAhSoh
- Start date
Poor thing, literally worked till death.
LTA what do you think ?
Day and Night pushing trolleys Uncles and Aunties Pushing their trolleys risking their lives
and Exploited by used Cardboard and used newspapers Business Traders Companies for
a few dollars per Kilograms of their collections . While traders at con man Sin Lin made
Thousads per months hapi hapi . Who did this mati Aunty voted for ??!
Day and Night pushing trolleys Uncles and Aunties Pushing their trolleys risking their lives
and Exploited by used Cardboard and used newspapers Business Traders Companies for
a few dollars per Kilograms of their collections . While traders at con man Sin Lin made
Thousads per months hapi hapi . Who did this mati Aunty voted for ??!
The Chinese treat each other with contempt.
Cardboard collector, 86, killed after bus runs over her and her trolley -
See more at: http://transport.asiaone.com/news/g...over-her-and-her-trolley#sthash.OjSfeaAI.dpuf
Zaihan Mohamed Yusof | TNP | Saturday, Nov 15, 2014
Madam Zheng Yuan Ying, 86, was a familiar face in the Marsiling Lane area.
But few knew her name. To some, she was "auntie" while others called her 'Ah Um' (auntie in Hokkien).
Madam Zheng was especially known to the staff of a discount shop, ABC Bargain Centre, who would keep pieces of cardboard for her.
Her 65-year-old son, Mr Soon Yi Quan, was at a coffee shop next to ABC yesterday morning when he heard that a "cardboard auntie" had
been killed after being knocked down by a private bus on Marsiling Lane in Woodlands.
He said in Mandarin: "My friend told me that a woman with a trolley was trapped under a bus. When I rushed there, I realised it was my mother."
Like clockwork each day, mother and son would leave their flat in Block 206, Marsiling Lane, at around 7am.
- See more at: http://transport.asiaone.com/news/g...over-her-and-her-trolley#sthash.OjSfeaAI.dpuf
She would go on her rounds to collect cardboard while Mr Soon would wait for her at the coffee shop.
She would return to ABC, which opens at 9am, to pick up the cardboard its staff would keep aside for her. If she needed help with the heavier loads, Mr Soon would step in.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said the elderly woman was pronounced dead by paramedics at the scene.
Her body had to be retrieved from the rear of the bus using an air bag and a hydraulic jack, an SCDF spokesman said.
Her damaged trolley and a stack of cardboard were stuck under the front of the bus.
The bus driver was arrested for causing death through a negligent act, the police said. Investigations are ongoing.
Roughly 50m away from the accident scene at Block 18, a Goshen Departmental Store employee, who wanted to be known only Ms Chin,
said she had heard a car honking loudly at about 8.30am.
She said in Malay: "There was no screeching or loud crashing sound. Just a horn. A car driver who saw the auntie get hit had honked at
the bus driver to stop."
At ABC, a Filipina employee, who gave her name only as Ms Esther, was saddened by Madam Zheng's tragic death.
The senior citizen would go there in the morning and afternoon to collect cardboard discarded by the shop. She spoke to the staff in
English.
UPSET
Ms Esther, who was in tears, told The New Paper: "We didn't know her name but to us she was our auntie.
"A few of us hurried to the accident site because we couldn't believe she had been killed.
"Tomorrow will not be same without her."
Madam Zheng, a kitchen helper until her retirement three years ago, was heading to a cardboard collection point a few hundred metres away when the accident happened, said eyewitnesses who knew her.
Some of her friends were standing across the road from where she was killed when TNP was at the scene of the accident.
One of them, Madam Tong Chuan, 80, said in Malay: "My heart was shattered when I was told 'your friend is dead' by a resident.
She was a strong woman who insisted on working."
Mr Soon, who is jobless, said his mother started collecting cardboard as a way to "kill time".
He said: "My mother earned less than $10 a day. I told her to stop doing this, but she wanted to kill time and make some extra pocket money."
Madam Tong said she had also tried to discourage Madam Zheng from working too hard.
"Why work for a few dollars?" she said. "It's not worth it. Yet, there are at least 10 elderly women in this estate who choose to make a living this way."
To Madam Tan Siew Lian, 73, it is still a way to earn some money.
At about 11am yesterday, she was seen pushing a trolley filled with cardboard and a bag of empty cans across the road near where
Madam Zheng's body lay under a blue tent.
She said: "She was very protective of her cardboard and would scold you if you go near it.
"The most an elderly person can make doing this is about $12 a day. It's back-breaking work and my shoulders are always aching."
The Marsiling Lane area has many shops and across it is an industrial estate.
Residents said some of these places are happy to hand over their discarded cardboard to the "cardboard aunties".
The Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) said yesterday that needy families and individuals who need financial and social help
may approach the nearest MSF social service office.
Or they can call the 24-hour ComCare Call hotline at 1800-222-000 for assistance.
Can we do more for cardboard collectors?
I was staring at the scene where the body of Madam Zheng Yuan Ying, 86, lay pinned under a bus yesterday morning.
She was killed while making her way to a cardboard collection point at Marsiling Lane.
It is a grim reminder to me that a job, even as mundane as collecting discarded cardboard, comes with risks.
Barely 20m away from where Madam Zheng's body was, three elderly women appeared oblivious that one of their own had been struck down.
In the heat, they pushed their carts gingerly along the same road, hoping that motorists would give them a wide berth.
Perhaps they had no time to stop and reflect, in their urgency to make a few extra dollars that could make the difference between going hungry or having a hot meal.
Why do these seniors take such risks? What drives people like Madam Zheng to work through their golden years for a pittance?
IT'S A HARD LIFE
I found out the hard way in February when I took part in a social experiment to get a taste of their way of life.
The 20kg of cardboard I collected came with a price - much sweat, very nearly tears and the awful realisation that I was lousy at doing this after four hours hunting for cardboard in Little India.
At 10 cents per kg, I made a grand $2 for my pains. I still keep that $2 note as a reminder of the hardship faced by elderly cardboard collectors.
Yesterday, when some of them told me they make about $10 a day, I figured out that to earn that kind of money, they would have to collect 100kg of cardboard.
From the time I spent with them, I learned that poverty and boredom are usually prerequisites for the job.
Some can be stubbornly independent, even to the extent of hiding what they do from their families out of pride or fear of getting scolded.
There are no benefits, no unions, no respite. If you are slow or fall sick, someone else will grab the cardboard, as I discovered.
Yet, some aunties more than twice my age put me to shame with their collections.
Few care or notice as these nameless aunties and uncles tread on the fringes of society, pushing carts with wheels that are often broken.
But yesterday, somebody did care.
After Madam Zheng's tragic death, a resident's committee member worked behind the scenes interviewing people for morsels of
information. He told me that he wanted to make it safer for seniors regardless of whether they choose to collect cardboard as a pastime or for profit.
This gesture brings hope that something will be done to help these senior citizens.
Why not take it further?
A collective effort on educating them and drivers on road safety, ensuring they are paid fairly and providing rest points in HDB estates, could make a world of difference.
Perhaps, some ministries can support such initiatives that must ultimately sprout at the grassroots level.
The issue of senior cardboard collectors will not go away quietly in an ageing society.
But if the authorities and society band together to help them, then Madam Zheng's death will not have been in vain.
- See more at: http://transport.asiaone.com/news/g...over-her-and-her-trolley#sthash.OjSfeaAI.dpuf
Another Aunty here who is "bored at home " Also she got tiired of
enjoying the "SWEE Standard Of Living "
Pls don't post pics of these cardboard collectors.
As Chinese we care a lot about face.
I seriously don't think our lau langs want to do hard job till so old if money is not an issue.
In aust, lau langs on pension enjoy life and join clubs if bored rather than go pick cardboards.
As Chinese we care a lot about face.
I seriously don't think our lau langs want to do hard job till so old if money is not an issue.
In aust, lau langs on pension enjoy life and join clubs if bored rather than go pick cardboards.
All the money collected by old bastard per annum (much more than mp pay, retired pm pay) can go into making life much better for other poor sinkie lau langs.
Those who worship that bastard should join him in hell.
Those who worship that bastard should join him in hell.
On the contrary, we should post more of their pics. Let's showcase to the world our uniquely Swiss standard of pioneer living.
At least these old folks make an honest living. Can't say the same for the PAP scums.
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