Signs of growing poverty in Singapore.

It is the odd little things that speak most loudly about a situation. Today, I saw one of those and was saddened by what it implied.

I was walking through an HDB area in the west of Singapore when I saw a middle-aged Malay woman, of perhaps 50 years old, clambering through an uncultivated green area that banked onto the road. It lay between an HDB estate and a shopping mall and MRT.

It was strange enough to see her clambering up this bank. It was stranger still to realize what she was doing. She was picking leaves, one by one, or in bunches, further down a branch, of plants. She had a plastic bag in one hand, which was already bulging with picked leaves. She seemed to be careful of which ones she chose. It was very clear what she was doing. This woman was picking her family's dinner from the side of a road. There were too many leaves for one person, in her bag. This was her way of "shopping" for vegetables.

I didn't wish to stare, but I looked long enough to understand the situation. She didn't look up the whole time I observed her. Her eyes were on the leaves, which she picked slowly, choosing only the best.

More saddening was that there were shops within 2 minutes walk of where she worked away. Clearly, she couldn't afford to buy vegetables, anymore, for her family - so she made do with these publicly available "vegetables". I only hope that she knows which leaves are edible. I am heartened that she was taking her time, so perhaps she did know which ones she was looking for.

Singapore shouldn't be like this. Prices shouldn't be rising faster than people can keep up with them. This is the reality of recent all round price rises. Singapore is becoming increasingly unaffordable for many people who are not earning million dollar salaries (which basically is the majority of Singaporeans). Yet, this truism is unseen and unheard. We are even told by the newspapers (see the Today paper of today) that the rich are taking the greatest hit from inflation. That may be so, in percentage terms, but the question is: who can afford to take a hit at all? The rich or the poor? Clearly, lower income Singaporeans cannot afford to take too much of a price increase. Those that can't may end up like this unfortunate Singaporean I saw today - foraging for her dinner in any uncultivated piece of land she could find.

The Singaporean economy needs to be more carefully managed, lest thousands of Singaporeans end up foraging alongside the Malay woman I saw today.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and seven months, and Tiarnan, two years exactly, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)