I’ve never been what you’d call a “gym-type.” The last time
I went into the gym, it was back in the day when I was still married to Gina,
which was some 20-years back. Exercise was limited to the compulsory physical
fitness sessions I had to attend for failing to pass IPPT, the physical fitness
proficiency test that is compulsory for all Singaporean men of military service
age (Last time I passed was when I was still in full time national service). Getting
fit was not my priority and I ballooned sometime in 2006. At one stage, my
little Chinese frame had to carry around 99 plus kilos of weight.
So, given my rather distant physical relationship with the
concept of physical fitness, I find myself at the age of 45 (not really old but
definitely not young), being described by someone significantly younger with adjectives
like “hunky looking” and “strongest one.” I was a little shocked to receive such
descriptions and it took my sister to remind me that adjectives like “hunky”
are not associated with men over 40 and I should just accept the compliment.
I bring up the story of my sudden bout of physical fitness
because I’ve been busy helping my main client move boxes of documents to his home
in preparation for Singapore’s Covid-19 “circuit” breaker, which has forced offices
to close and people to work from home. This was an exercise involving lots of
logistics and the only other person doing heavy lifting in the company is the
same age as me. We, the “Old Farts,” became valued for our physicality. While
its flattering to be known for your physicality after a certain age, it is a
worrying inditement of the generations after you and hopefully this is sometime
that “Covid 19” corrects.
The crux of the problem are actually good things. The
increased availability in education and scientific progress reduced the need
for human muscle to do a good number of jobs. Survival has moved from being the
ability to escape being a predator’s lunch to earning a wage. Why should human
life be put at stake on any given task when you can get a machine to do it.
There is, however, a downside. In the last 50-years, there has
been a “stigmatization” against jobs that required a certain amount of physicality.
This has been especially true in Singapore, which is a society obsessed with progress
and status (which is a good thing in as much as our obsession with material
progress has made us materially successful). I’m old enough to remember when
parents and teachers used the threat of “sweeping the streets” to get us to
study hard, get into a good university, which automatically lead to a well-paying
job in an office.
We became so successful at getting our kids to study hard,
get into university and a good office job that we found that nobody wanted to
do jobs that required them to be anywhere outside an airconditioned office for
more than an hour at a time. Singapore’s fabulously clean streets are inevitably
cleaned by people from elsewhere. If you see a Singaporean in any of the “non”
office jobs, they are usually very old, or crippled.
The situation was such that if you were a fit and healthy
Singaporean with more than a primary school leavers certificate and happened to
be working somewhere other than an office, people automatically assumed there
was something wrong. I think of the “horny” aunties who assumed I was a former
convict based on the fact that I was serving them in the Bistrot.
Nobody saw value outside the office. As far as Singapore’s
average Joe was concerned, the Bangladeshi, Indian and Filipinos cleaning our
streets and looking after our kids where bloody lucky and shouldn’t demand much
money. Sad to say officialdom encouraged this attitude. When it came to
discussing a pay raise for our ministers (average salary of $100,000 a month – the
emphasis being on a month), the discussion was always about “talent attraction”
or “talent retention.” When it came to talking about a pay raise for cleaners
(average salary $1,000 a month) it was always about the need to “raise
productivity.”
If there’s anything that “covid-19” does, I hope it shifts
attitudes and people start to appreciate the value that people like cleaners, nurses
and all sorts of humble jobs offer society. Covid-19 is bringing us back to
basics. In the past few days, I’ve met with “professionals,” coming to grips with
the fact that what they do is not an essential service. Suddenly the janitor is
more valuable to society than the private wealth manager earning multiple times
more. Hopefully, Covid-19 will get people like movie stars and sports stars
understand that the multi-millions they earn are what Angelina Jolie calls “silly
money,” and channel some what they earn to those lower down the food chain.
I am optimistic that we will beat this virus. I just hope
that when we do, we remember the people who were kept us safe during vulnerable
times. I’ve never said we should go out of our way to make people rich but I do
think that its time that society stop begrudging people like cleaners the
ability to earn a livable wage.
I would also ad that as much as I am flattered to be
described as “strongest one” and “hunky looking” as I enter my later years, I
hope the kids of today remember that being physically capable is not sometime
you do for fun or as part of a fashion trend but an important part of having a
life.
No comments
Post a Comment