"You go down New York, Broadway, You will see the beggars, people of the streets...Where are the beggars in Singapore? Show me. I take pride in that."... Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew
Man scavenges for leftover food in shopping mall
By Ken Teh, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE: It's a sad sight to see people scavenging for leftover food in hawker centres and food courts.
But, just who are these people? Are they homeless, mentally unsound or simply impoverished?
And how can they be helped?
Video-journalist Ken Teh stumbles across one such man in the heart of Tampines Central, which is home to big shopping malls, cineplexes and office buildings.
Every morning, 77-year-old Mr Chen will make his pilgrimage to his favourite haunt, the Tampines Mall - which is one of the shopping complexes in Tampines Central.
There, he waits patiently for a coffee he doesn't have to pay for.
"He (Mr Chen) took the coffee from the table. The supervisor very quickly cleared all the tables around the area, took the coffee from the old man and threw it away. The old man went to look for it in the dustbin. At this point, he looked very helpless. I pity him," said a customer.
Sometimes, Mr Chen is lucky. He finds food while rummaging through leftovers, but at other times, people buy him snacks and drinks. He is diabetic, but Mr Chen can't stop his craving for sweet drinks.
Mr Chen said: "I can't see properly, so I just come here and sit down......I like to drink the drinks here. I have three sons but they're all living at three different places and I don't know where they stay..."
Some customers find Mr Chen a bother - they say he has a bad odour and makes them uncomfortable.
Sales assistant, Soon Chain Sun, said: "There were customers who complained. So, the police came to question him and the old man told the police that he wasn't doing anything wrong. But the police took him away. Sometimes, he'll ask people for money, he'll sleep here and go home at about 5pm."
But what is Mr Chen's story?
On following him, Ken Teh found out that Mr Chen lives with his wife in a four-room flat in Tampines. She takes care of him, relying on a $400 monthly allowance from their children.
But Teo Siang Kiang says her husband suffers from mild dementia and simply refuses to listen to her.
She said: "I can't control him, he just wants to go out. Even if I scold him, he wouldn't bother. Sometimes he goes out and gets lost. Then, the police bring him back. This has happened two or three times. The best thing is to put him in a home (old folks' home), but my son can't put him there because it's too costly."
Families like Mr Chen's are caught in a bind. So, just how does society prevent people like him from harming himself or from becoming a public nuisance?
Is institutional care the answer, or are there no easy answers?
According to the Institute of Mental Health, dementia affects over 5% of elderly Singaporeans, which is about 20,000 people.
And, this number looks set to swell to 48,000 by 2030.
Although there are welfare homes and assistance schemes, doctors say dementia patients mostly just need lots of care and understanding from those around them.
Dr Ang Yong Guan, Paragon Medical's consultant psychiatrist, said: "They (dementia patients) may not see the consequences of their actions. They may do silly things, inappropriate things and some of these things are rather life-endangering. So, if you have a dementia patient in the family, the strain on the family is very, very great."
Mr Chen should consider himself lucky, though. There are many others - the homeless and the penniless who scavenge on scraps just to survive.
About 140 vagrants are picked up off the streets by the authorities each year.
But Mr Chen has a roof over his head and the kindness and generosity of strangers to help him along, even if some find it an uncomfortable experience. - CNA
